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Geoff Baker

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The news on Erik Bedard was not good moments ago. He felt discomfort in his shoulder after yesterday's bullpen session and will now get a magnetic resonance imaging exam on Friday in Seattle.

"We're going to send up the old MRI that he had earlier, have this one and try to do a comparison, see if we can't get to the bottom of it,'' Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said.

The team should have the results later in the day.

"There's obviously something in there that's bothering him and we want to get to the bottom of it,'' Wakamatsu said.

What this does, though, is set Bedard's timetable for return back by more than a week, even if everything is OK. And that means, his trade value this month is as good as done.

The reason for that is, Bedard will have to wait four days for the dye they shoot into his arm for the MRI exam to dissipate. Then, he'll resume playing catch again instead of a bullpen. I asked Wakamatsu if this means Bedard will also have to go out on a minor league rehabilitation assignment first, before returning to action, and he replied that yes, he would.

"If we find nothing wrong with that and we're able to continue down with the medication and all that, I think we're going to have to send him out,'' he said.

The plan up to now has been to skip the minor league rehab and get him out there ASAP.

If Seattle was to trade him this month, as we mentioned earlier today, Bedard will have to throw at least a few starts and show he can go six or seven innings. He is nowhere near that right now.

In fact, if I was a betting man, which I'm not, I'd say the odds are better than even that he's thrown his final pitch of 2009. We'll see.

"Our No. 1 thing is just to find out what's bothering him and get a plan of attack,'' Wakamatsu said. "Whether it's feasible to pitch the rest of the year, or, look to next year hopefully.''

On to happier news, looks like Russell Branyan has been taking some "tickle" tips from Ken Griffey Jr. That's Mike Sweeney on the ground.

On to more important matters, like David Aardsma's behind. We told you earlier that he had a boil removed from it by a surgeon after going to a clinic earlier today. The boil did not impact Aardsma's outing last night, but became more prevalent today to the point where it was causing problems with the lymph nodes in his groin -- making the groin area muscles tighten up -- earlier this morning.

Aardsma will not be available tonight. Mark Lowe will close instead, if needed. The team hopes Aardsma will be back tomorrow.

Speaking of Lowe and his fellow bullpen "soldiers'' they will not be allowed to wear those gladiator hemets in the bullpen anymore. A representative from MLB apprached the Mariners before last night's game and issued a warning that the helmets are not part of standard MLB equipment or uniforms.

No fines were issued. But the team is complying.

MARINERS LINEUP:

RF Ichiro
1B Russell Branyan
2B Jose Lopez
DH Ken Griffey Jr.
3B Adrian Beltre
CF Franklin Gutierrez
SS Jack Wilson
C Rob Johnson
LF Michael Saunders

LHP Luke French