Seems like the Mariners are fast becoming known as the Broad Street Bullies of the Cactus League, given the degree of penalties we're seeing MLB-paid folks hand out to them in these exhibition games. First, there was Cliff Lee getting a five-game suspension for throwing upstairs on Chris Snyder. Not hitting him, mind you, like Barry Zito did to Prince Fielder, but I digress.

Then, there was Milton Bradley tonight. He got ejected in the third inning. Not for arguing balls and strikes with plate umpire Dan Bellino. But apparently, merely for peeling off his gloves and dropping his bat.

Yep.

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu figures that Bradley thought the inning was over and was simply preparing to go back in the field. Yeah, I know, it's probably not a great sign that Bradley thought there were three outs instead of two. But that's life. If it's Ken Griffey Jr., does he get tossed?

Probably not. Think Bradley being, well, Bradley, had anything to do with it? Maybe just a tad. Reputation carries weight in this game.

"I didn't understand it either,'' Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said moments ago. "And in all fairness to Milton, I think he thought it was three outs. He started taking his gloves off, his bat dropped and then he picked up his bat and walked off. And that's what I told the umpire. I didn't think that was called for, that I thought it was an overeaction on his (the umpire's) part.

"He said he (Bradley) couldn't do that. And I said 'Do what?' But like I said, I told him to go back at the end, look at his actions and tell me if he didn't think (Bradley) thought it was three outs right there. So, I just didn't think it was called for.''

See Bill James talk about the Mariners in the video above.

Anyhow, Wakamatsu put a positive spin on the night's events, saying he wasn't all that concerned with the home runs and liked the way his pitchers aggressively attacked the zone. Seattle did notch 11 strikeouts in the game, though a half-dozen or so came once the issue was already pretty much decided in favor of Texas.

Wakamatsu also noted that his team wasn't swinging the bats very well and that some areas would be addressed.

But overall, he didn't sound very alarmed just yet.

Those getting a positive mention include Kanekoa Teixeira, who tossed 1 2/3 scoreless frames and notched three of the strikeouts. Nice showing by him as he makes an unlikely bid for one of the last bullpen spots. MLB teams do love their Rule 5 picks, but I'm not sure a team with designs on contending wants one of them breaking into a bullpen job. He's still here, though, so we'll see what he does from here on. Opened some eyes tonight, that he did.

Brandon League gave up a run over 1 1/3 innings and fanned a pair. He got tagged for that home run right after replacing David Aardsma but otherwise settled down from there.

Aardsma was on the flip side of the scale, getting burned for four runs in 2 /3 of an inning.

"You try to compare them to last year and you look at some of the pitching last year in spring training, you're not panicking,'' Wakamatsu said. "Again, command is something we're looking for right now, and I think the secondary stuff, especially a guy who throws that hard like Aardsma with his split, it's just not there yet.''

So, there you go. We're only about halfway through the games here. Let's see what happens tomorrow.