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.

March 19, 2010 at 9:45 PM

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Reds 6, Mariners 2: Don Wakamatsu rips umpire over Milton Bradley "witch hunt"

Posted by Geoff Baker

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu just went off on Class AAA umpire Jon Merry for ejecting Milton Bradley in the fourth inning.

"To me, it's almost like a witch hunt,'' he said. "I mean, it's almost embarassing to me when egos get involved to the point where they don't even give a guy a chance.''

Hear audio of everything Wakamatsu said about the umpire by clicking the link.

Merry ejected Bradley for arguing a fourth-inning strikeout call on a full-count pitch that seemed high. Wakamatsu admitted that Bradley did say something to Merry as he walked back to the dugout -- he couldn't tell what -- but added that the umpire's trigger was too quick.

"Again, I think it's pretty blatant that some guys have it out for him.''

Wakamatsu rarely gets this critical of an umpire -- at least in public. This is the second time in a row that Bradley has been ejected by a AAA umpire. Last time, two nights ago, he didn't even say anything, but was tossed for dropping his bat and peeling off his gloves, thinking there were three outs in the inning instead of two.

Doug Fister got evaluated by a doctor here and has what Wakamatsu termed a "soft tissue bruise". The manager added that this is "good news" but that Fister will still have x-rays in the morning.

Tonight, he clearly said something. Guys do get tossed for that. But yeah, Bradley's reputation probably isn't helping.

By the way, the game ended with Jack Wilson apparently forgetting how many outs there were. He took off from first base with one out on a routine flyball and was rounding third when the throw came back in to double him off the bag.

Many Mariners fans in the crowd weren't happy, some of them booing Wilson as he jogged back to the dugout.

The Mariners once again did little offensively in this one. Pitching-wise, Wakamatsu was pleased with the work by Jason Vargas, who threw four scoreless innings before yielding four home runs to the next seven batters he faced.

But Wakamatsu let him know he was happy with the 75-pitch outing, which stretches Vargas out and probably makes him the odds-on favorite to be the No. 5 starter.

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Reds 6, Mariners 2: Don Wakamatsu rips umpire over Milton Bradley "witch hunt"

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