Boston wears Bedard down with 2-1 win

BOSTON — An exhausted Erik Bedard lay in street clothes on a training table, looking every bit like a TKO'd middleweight.

The supposed Mariners ace had been set up for a third inning beating during his team's 2-1 loss on Sunday by the subtle jabs of plate umpire C.B. Bucknor, who seemed incapable of viewing a strike he couldn't call a ball. But it was the devastating flurry combination from Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox that ultimately sent Bedard wheezing towards a standing eight count.

Pedroia fouled off pitch after pitch with two strikes and two out, finally drawing a walk in an inning that would see Bedard throw a grueling 40 pitches in the 98-degree heat.

Two innings later, Pedroia finished with a ground out in a 10-pitch at-bat that wound up ending Bedard's day as the Seattle lefty failed to answer the bell for the sixth.

"We made quality pitches," Mariners pitcher Jamie Burke said. "He just got the bat on the ball somehow."

Bedard's inability to finish Pedroia off the first time around led to the game's tying run. The walk to Pedroia loaded the bases and Bedard drilled J.D. Drew with a 1-2 pitch inside to force home the equalizer.

Pedroia's next go-round at Bedard, the fifth-inning ground out, also helped Drew deliver the afternoon's decisive run. The ground out drove Bedard's pitch count up to 99 for the day, forcing him from the game and allowing Drew to face right-handed reliever Sean Green instead of the lefty to start the sixth.

Drew got hold of a Green pitch on the outer half of the plate and drilled it on a line straight over the center-field fence to put Boston ahead for good. All of Drew's eight homers this season have come against right-handers.

Seattle had only three hits and, after the second inning, managed just a Willie Bloomquist single off Red Sox rookie starter Justin Masterson and the Boston bullpen. The final seven Mariners went down in order, with closer Jonathan Papelbon sealing the ninth to the delight of 37,198 fans at a sold-out Fenway Park.

Bedard went five innings or fewer for the fourth time in his past six games. That's something he did only three times last season.

His statistical total will show he allowed the one earned run on two hits. But there were three walks mixed into that, a critical hit batsman, as well as an innings-total that once again failed to measure up to his advance billing.

And Pedroia, who foiled Bedard on Sunday, wouldn't give in, Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

"You look at the box score and he didn't have anything to show for it," Francona said. "But those at-bats, he never gave in. He worked the count. Maybe that's the reason J.D. [Drew] got to face a righty."

Bedard does have a bit of a case regarding Bucknor's balls and strikes calls, which were sort of like an R.A. Dickey knuckleball — they were all over the place. It looked for a while like the Mariners might need Dickey after the third inning ran Bedard's pitch count up to 68.

But he gritted through the next two frames.

One Bucknor call in particular likely changed the outcome of that third inning. Bedard appeared to have Pedroia rung-up on a 2-2 fastball down the middle, only to see it called a ball by Bucknor to take the count full.

Three foul balls later, Pedroia finally drew his walk.

"It just kept him out there longer and the guy kept fouling off some good pitches," Burke said. "There was one pitch that was pretty good, but those things happen. That wouldn't have cost 15 extra pitches. It's just part of the game. We all make mistakes."

The Mariners opened the scoring in the second inning after putting two on with no outs. It looked like it could turn into a big inning before Drew leaped and caught a potential line drive extra-base hit to right by Richie Sexson.

Seattle did score one, however, when Yuniesky Betancourt hit what looked to be a inning-ending double-play grounder to shortstop, but beat out the relay to first and allowed a run to score.

"The third inning was a big part of the game," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "They really made him work hard in the third inning. That's pretty gritty in this type of weather. He threw a lot of pitches. It was extremely hot out there. That probably cut him short an inning, that third inning, the pitches he threw."

It's getting hotter every day for a Mariners team that has dropped six of seven and remains in a spiral to nowhere.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com