Mariners Notebook | Minor-leaguers shell Brandon Morrow

PEORIA, Ariz. — It took a couple of batters for Brandon Morrow to find the plate.

After that, his pitches had no trouble finding opposing bats. A brief afternoon of work seemed long indeed to Morrow, who admitted he was "shelled" by the Class AAA Texas Rangers affiliate to the tune of five runs over just one-third of an inning.

Morrow yielded a three-run homer, a run-scoring triple, two singles and two walks while retiring his only hitter on a strikeout. The shaky Tuesday afternoon performance raises even more doubts about the state of Seattle's bullpen with just five days remaining until the season opener.

"It's a tough one," Morrow said of his second minor-league outing since being sidelined with a sore shoulder on March 10. "It's a frustrating one."

The Mariners aren't sure whether Morrow will be ready for daily work when the season opens next Monday. They are almost certain to go with a 12-man pitching staff as a result and are pushing to see whether one of their injury-rehabbing right handers — Mark Lowe or Chris Reitsma — is strong enough to head north with the big club and deliver some crucial innings.

Unlike last year's spring training injury to closer J.J. Putz, which didn't factor much into the regular season as the team rarely needed him in the early going, the prime area of bullpen concern this time stands to get plenty of work in April. Situational lefty George Sherrill was traded to Baltimore and the Mariners are already going with the relatively-untested Eric O'Flaherty in that role.

If Morrow isn't quite ready in a week, the bulk of his eighth-inning workload would fall on the shoulders of Sean Green. And if Green is preoccupied with the late-innings, the team needs some hard throwers who can get them through the sixth and seventh.

Morrow said he felt fine throughout the appearance and a pre-game bullpen session. But his control, an issue throughout last season, was nowhere to be found.

Manager John McLaren wants to see more control from Morrow when he pitches again in a few days. He was pleased to hear Morrow felt no pain and that his velocity was up where it had been before his injury.

But the lack of control is a huge question mark.

"You've got to make sure the control's not something caused by soreness or something," McLaren said. "That he's pumping up just to get the velocity up there. The game is about throwing strikes."

No changing up

Ryan Rowland-Smith finally gave up his first earned run of the spring. It won't even count in his final Cactus League numbers, coming as it did against a Class AAA team, but that wasn't really most pressing on the Australian pitcher's mind.

Rowland-Smith was working on a couple of specific areas, most notably, his efforts with two strikes on hitters. On one occasion, he threw a pair of change-ups to jump ahead 0-2 in the count, but then threw a breaking ball with which the hitter made contact.

"I wound up getting him out, but that wasn't the point," Rowland-Smith said afterward. "I should have just thrown him another change-up down where he couldn't get it. You keep things simpler that way."

Other than that, Rowland-Smith was generally pleased with his day and his spring so far. He's in a dogfight to land a final bullpen spot should the team go with seven relievers.

"I can't complain much about how things have gone," he said. "I'm not leaving here with any regrets, put it that way."

Rowland-Smith has tossed a dozen scoreless Cactus League innings so far. Combined with his strong work out of the bullpen last summer, he knows he's made about as good a case for himself as he possibly can.

"It's out of my hands," he said. "I've packed my things for Seattle and I'm hoping for the best. If I have to change directions and get things sent to Tacoma, so be it. I know the team has some decisions to make."

Lopez in 2-hole?

José Lopez once again hit out of the No. 2 spot in the order during Tuesday night's game against the Texas Rangers in Surprise, Ariz., a 5-1 Mariners loss. To hear McLaren tell it before the game, that could be where Lopez opens the season.

"We're thinking about it strongly, I think that's safe to say," McLaren said. "He's hit behind the runner. He's swinging at more strikes. He's going to get more strikes with Ichiro going first. I'm not going to say it's 100 percent, but we're leaning that way."

Note:

• Richie Sexson got the start at first base on Tuesday for the first time since taking a cortisone injection in his right shoulder to help with bursitis. Sexson flied out to center and bounced out to second his first two times up, then walked twice in his last two at-bats.

Tuesday's box score