Bedard is Back!

It's been difficult to blog about the Ms this season, as I hate to add my voice (and bad-fan juju) to all the naysayers out there bemoaning Seattle's poor start (if one can call nearly two months of 14-games-under-.500, 11.5-games-out-of-first baseball a "start"). I'm not ready to write their season off just yet, nor am I calling for the head of John McLaren, but they have had me worried, scouring the dank bottomland of the weak AL East like a scrawny catfish on his last . . . er, fins.

But things look a little better after last night's dazzling performance by Erik Bedard, however, his first really dominating performance since April 26, when he shut down the Yankees in his first start since coming off the DL. Both of these wins were good news, as it's great to see a guy dominate two franchises like the Sox and Yanks (back when the New Yorkers were still playing good ball, anyway). Maybe it's time for a bit of excitement, the kind you get when you come home from work to find there's actually a message on your machine, and you're hoping it's from that hot babe you called last night, and not another robo-sales call from that carpet cleaning company.

Boston look baffled last night against Bedard, who only gave up two hits, singles to Mike Lowell and Manny Ramirez. Lefties David Ortiz and Sean Casey couldn't get anything going against him, and even righties Lugo and Cash had two Ks each. Bedard gave up three free passes, probably the only blemish on a sparkling performance, but none of those came back to bite him, and that's what counts. His one rough spot was on those two singles, with one out in the fourth inning, but Jose Lopez made a brilliant play up the middle, snaring a Casey grounder that threatened to hop over second base and into the outfield. He gloved the ball and scooped it in one motion to Betancourt, whose throw beat the slow-footed Casey to first for a sweet twin killing.

Betancourt picked Bedard up on the other side of the ball, too. Seattle's offense hasn't been the best, and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield was on the mound--there's nothing worse than a good flutterball to make a team's shaky hitting collapse, but Wakefield has been as inconsisent as his signature pitch is slippery, coming off an eight-run pounding at the hands of Oakland. He looked strong, however, until Betancourt pounced on a pitch in the third like a two-year old on a Cheerio crushed into the rug. The ball sailed over the head of Ramirez for a solo shot, and that was all Bedard needed.

The game was the team's first shutout of the year, and Erik needed help from Morrow in the eighth and Putz in the ninth to do it. Putz walked two and seemed close to giving the game away to the always-dangerous Sox, before inducing an easy ground ball from Coco Crisp that sealed the deal.

Finally, the trade that brought us Bedard begins to bear fruit, and Seattle's suddenly on a surprising two-game win streak. If that sounds like small potatoes and cold comfort, it is--but Seattle's only managed back-to-back wins twice this month, and just six times all season. Their best win streak is three, which they did April 15-17, six weeks ago. With Silva on the hill tonight against Nate Robertson and the still-kittenish Tigers, they just might do it.

And that's about as excited as I'll get about the Mariners for now. I'm afraid to hit that "Play" button and see what message Seattle has left for us, their long-suffering fans--hottie or carpet cleaners? We find out tonight.