Erik Bedard all business when it comes to baseball

TUCSON, Ariz. — The line on Erik Bedard on Monday: four innings; eight hits; four runs, all earned; one walk; no strikeouts; and 12 questions answered.

Bedard's post-outing press briefings — emphasis on the "brief" — are becoming highly anticipated events this spring. Hey, you've got to take your suspense where you can find it in a camp devoid of serious position battles.

Bedard came to Seattle with a reputation as a difficult personality, particularly for us ink-stained wretches. However, when I was in Orioles camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a couple of weeks ago and asked his former teammates about Bedard, they seemed to genuinely enjoy his company. Of course, they never had to stick a tape recorder in his face and ask him to evaluate his outing.

"He's a different kind of cat, for sure," Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons told me. "Definitely a quiet guy. He's a good guy, He just doesn't like the attention, I think."

I think so, too. But I'm here to report that Bedard, in my first postgame exposure to him after reading about the, uh, lively exchanges following his initial two Mariners outings, was fine on Monday.

He was cordial, even a little bit playful — and that's after getting beat around a bit by the White Sox, who had scored four runs after the first four men came to the plate. Jim Thome and Paul Konerko both launched mammoth homers before Bedard settled down to pitch decently the rest of his stint.

Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre would say afterward that Bedard lost his tempo in the first inning and was taking too much time between pitches, which seemed to have an adverse effect on his pitch location.

"He basically was just middle of the plate and up, very similar to what he was the first time he pitched in the first inning [against the Giants on Feb. 29]," Stottlemyre said. "I don't know if we need a little more preparation in the bullpen, or whatever."

After they talked between innings, Bedard settled down, sped up and blanked the White Sox the rest of the way. And then the reporters trooped down to the clubhouse, wondering what awaited them.

"Five questions," he said, but with a twinkle.

Bedard was referring to his last media appearance, when he declared that he would take just four questions — and stuck to it.

"That's one more than last time," he pointed out.

But after five questions, Bedard didn't move, not even when there were some awkward pauses that gave him an out. He seemed willing to stick around until the questions ran out — as long as they weren't about anything other than his pitching.

When a reporter said he had questions, but not about the game, Bedard replied, not unpleasantly, "Oh, well, then they're not questions."

That drew a laugh, and you began to understand what John McLaren said before the game: "He's got a light side to him. He likes to have a laugh. I like everything about him."

Stottlemyre said he had kidded Bedard about needing to step up his interview game.

"I understand he doesn't like to talk to the press, but I encourage him to talk on days he pitches, so I don't have to talk so much," he said with a laugh. "That's what I told him: 'Do me a favor.' "

And so he did in an interview session that, while not expansive, was informative. Bedard said that after the first inning, "I just tried to hit corners, throw less behind in the count, throw better pitches. That's all."

Of the outing, which raised his spring earned-run average to 8.00 (eight runs in nine innings), he said, "I had one bad inning in the first inning, and put zeros on the board after that. That's it."

He said he had "no idea" if he used his curveball more Monday, as it appeared.

Asked if he felt it was his responsibility to talk to the media, he replied, "No," but wouldn't elaborate.

"I have my reasons," he said.

When it was noted he seemed more relaxed, he said, "Really? I didn't feel a difference. I'm always the same, pretty much. Good and bad."

Assessing his spring to date, Bedard said, "Compared to the other ones, I guess I'd say pretty close to the same. No different. If I do bad the rest of the spring, it would be different."

Ah, that's the crux of the matter. Most Mariners fans don't care one bit how Bedard deals with the media. They want him to win games, which is fair enough. But his interactions with reporters might give a glimpse into his personality, and by extension his M.O. as a pitcher.

"He never really let anyone get him off what he wanted to do," Orioles pitcher Adam Loewen, a fellow Canadian, said in Fort Lauderdale of Bedard. "No matter who the pitching coach was, no matter what anyone told him, he always did what he knew he needed to do to be successful.

"Maybe he wasn't the most enthusiastic guy, but you knew when he got on the mound, he wanted to get everyone out, and he didn't want anyone to put it in play. Everyone told him he couldn't try to strike out everybody. He proved he could do it pretty much every time out there."

When I pointed out to Loewen that it sounded like Bedard has a stubborn streak, he said, "With his stuff, it didn't hurt him at all. For other guys that don't have his stuff, it wouldn't pay to be stubborn."

I predict it's going to be fun to watch this guy in action — in every aspect. When he finished his news conference Monday — 3 minutes, 52 seconds worth, for the record, compared to 78 seconds his last time out — Bedard turned to Mariners public relations director Tim Hevly.

"Was that better?" he asked.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com