Mariners Blog

Geoff Baker covers the Mariners for The Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout spring training, and during the season.

June 24, 2009 at 11:06 PM

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A "strong chance" Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt is headed for the disabled list

Posted by Geoff Baker

Word out of the clubhouse is that Yuniesky Betancourt hurt his lower hamstring. He'll have an MRI tomorrow and manager Don Wakamatsu says "there's probably a strong chance'' he'll be DL-bound.

"It looks like he's going to miss some time,'' Wakamatsu said.

This situation is not as dire as it might be now that Jose Lopez is coming back off the bereavement list tomorrow. The team will merely sub Lopez into Betancourt's roster spot. Don;t forget, the team also has Ronny Cedeno, Chris Woodward and Josh Wilson on the roster. And Betancourt wasn't exactly the second coming of A-Rod the hitter or Ozzie Smith the fielder this season, though Wakamatsu felt he played one of his best games all season in the field tonight.

That figures, doesn't it?

Anyhow, this was obviously a big win given all the injury concerns.

I spoke to Adrian Beltre afterwards and he told me that hitting the ball hard, like he did in all of his at-bats tonight, is the best tonic for a shoulder problem that isn't going away.

"When I hit the ball hard, that's the best thing for it,'' he said. "I don't feel it when I do that. When I swing and miss, it really hurts. So, all I've got to do is keep hitting the ball hard all season and I won't have a problem.''

But this might not be as simple as last year -- not that it was easy -- for him, even though he doesn't have that wrist injury to contend with any more.

"It's worse than last year,'' Beltre said.

So, that's sobering. There are storylines developing everyday with this team and the continuing sagas of Beltre and Betancourt should definitely be worth a watch in coming weeks.

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Comments (75)

So Cedeno gets the start with his Scott Spiezio like BA starts at SS??? I'd rather see Chris Woodward start. Posted on June 25, 2009 at 12:26 AM by tabs. Jump to comment

As bad as Yuni has been this year, it's not like we've had a better option. I thought the promise of average defense from Cedeno... Posted on June 25, 2009 at 8:32 AM by Mike8. Jump to comment

How many times have we heard the praise of Rob's catching? Quite a bit. How many times have we heard the praise of Joh's? Anyone... Posted on June 25, 2009 at 7:44 AM by vikinglifeguard. Jump to comment

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A "strong chance" Mariners shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt is headed for the disabled list

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