A feel-good story

PEORIA, Ariz. – When you feel good, you don’t always look good during spring training.

Erik Bedard was proof of that Friday when he gave up six runs in three innings of the Mariners’ 8-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies. He gave up four hits, four walks and hit a batter, and Rockies third baseman Christian Colonel got the big hit with a first-inning grand slam.

It was Bedard’s third outing since being slowed by a sore right gluteus maximus muscle and, despite the results, he said he felt great.

“That’s the best I’ve felt all spring,” he said. “Sometimes you feel great and throw bad, sometimes you feel bad and throw good. I threw to my pitch limit and my arm felt fine. That’s the important thing.”

Actually, it’s the vital thing.

Bedard threw 64 pitches and, with one more exhibition start remaining, will barely reach the 80-pitch mark that manager Don Wakamatsu said is necessary for him to begin the season.

“It was like watching Felix (Hernandez) yesterday,” Wakamatsu said. “There is getting your work in and building your pitch count up, but there also is preparing to get better for the season. In both their outings, I wasn’t really impressed with the motivation behind it. The good thing about it is they came out with no problems and their pitch counts were up.”

Brandon Morrow, in his second game back after suffering tightness in his right forearm, struggled with his control but, like Bedard, said he felt good.

Morrow gave up one hit, three walks and two runs in one inning. Ian Stewart hit a two-run homer off him in the fifth.

“I felt real good but my mechanics were off,” Morrow said. “I’d throw three good pitches in a row, then four bad ones. This is the time to work on things, and I was working on my curve. I threw one that got me a double play and one that got hit out. On the home run, that pitch felt great out of my hand. Off the bat, I knew it was going over the fence.”

Ugh, as in ugly

Friday’s game was a classic dog-days-of-spring-training affair for the Mariners.

Besides the lackluster pitching from Bedard and Morrow, the Mariners made mistakes on the bases and in the field.

Chris Shelton was caught in a rundown off third base to end the second inning after the Mariners had runners on second and third with nobody out. And center fielder Endy Chavez let a fly drop in shallow right-center after a miscommunication between he and second baseman Ronny Cedeno.

The Mariners have eight exhibitions remaining and Wakamatsu said it’s time for the sloppy play to end.

“We’ve talked to every one of them about what next week entails,” he said. “We are trying to keep everybody healthy but also motivated. We’re going to spend as much time as we can going over fundamentals and trying to get as much covered as we possibly can.”

Setting the rotation

It’s not hard to figure out the Mariners’ season-opening rotation, based on how the starters have been lined up – Hernandez, Bedard, Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn and Ryan Rowland-Smith.

Wakamatsu isn’t prepared to announce anything until next week.

“There are a couple more outings and (the possibility of) injuries and other stuff,” he said. “I don’t think it’s necessary to put that out there yet. By next week, we’ll have something settled.”

Wakamatsu also said there may be a round of cuts after the weekend and some personnel shifts during the next week as the Mariners get down to their 25-man opening-day roster.

He said decisions on the starting rotation, the backup catcher and the two Rule 5 players (infielder Reegie Corona and pitcher Jose Lugo) probably wouldn’t be made until next weekend.

Notes

The Mariners called off a simulated game for left-handed relief Tyler Johnson to let his arm rest after he’d thrown an extensive amount on the side on Thursday. … Catcher Jamie Burke was back in camp after spending two days at home in Oregon, where his wife, Katrina, gave birth to their third son. Payson Burke was born at 4:42 p.m. Wednesday. After catching all 10 innings of Tuesday’s game, Burke flew home to be with his family, then took a late-night flight Thursday back to Arizona. … Second baseman Jose Lopez was scratched from the lineup before Friday’s game because of a personal issue. He is scheduled to play today against the Angels. … The Mariners have passed the 100,000 mark in home spring training attendance for the 12th straight season. Friday’s crowd of 8,443 in their 15th home game pushed their attendance to 108,574.