PEORIA, Ariz. — Monday morning, Brandon Morrow threw 10 minutes off the bullpen mound and said his right forearm felt fine.
In the afternoon, Erik Bedard spent 10 minutes facing the Dodgers and, well, here’s his assessment: “My (butt) felt good, and that’s that.”
That’s about as blunt and brief as the typically blunt-and-brief Bedard can describe an ailment that had kept him from pitching since March 5. He came down with a sore right gluteus maximus muscle after that outing and Monday was his first game since.
Counting Morrow, who still isn’t ready for games because of a tight right forearm, the Mariners had four-fifths of their projected starting rotation unavailable. Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva were away pitching for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.
Bedard gave up two hits, a walk and one run in one inning, a 19-pitch outing that wasn’t nearly as crisp as his first two. He hadn’t allowed a run in 42/3 innings.
“It showed that he’d had a little bit of time off,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “But the big thing was that he had no pain at all, which is exciting.”
The Mariners have said there should be enough time for Bedard to build his arm up in time for the regular season, although any setback will put that in jeopardy.
“I think he’s still pretty strong,” Wakamatsu said. “He didn’t lose that much time. He says he could have gone five innings. It seems to be pretty positive.”
It may be impossible for Morrow to be ready when the fifth spot comes around for the first time April 10. Still, his 30-pitch bullpen session Monday was a positive step for a guy who hasn’t pitched in a game since March 1.
“No tightness, no pain,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I was airing it out, but it was my normal bullpen effort level.”
Morrow expects to throw another bullpen Thursday, although there’s no timetable on when he’ll pitch in games again. He’s able to accept that, along with the likelihood he won’t be ready when the season begins.
“I’ve been trying not to look at the calendar because I know we’re getting kind of close to that deadline,” Morrow said. “They told me not to worry about rushing back, not push myself to be ready if I’m not 100 percent.”
Morrow learned first-hand last year what can happen when he does that. He developed a sore shoulder early in spring training and tried to pitch through it, then had to be shut down the last two weeks of camp. He didn’t join the Mariners until mid-April.
“I tried to work through it instead of realizing that it was March and I had plenty of time,” he said.
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog from spring training at www.heraldnet.com
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