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Washburn hopes to give bullpen rest in opener against A's

Jul 7, 2008 - 1:26 PM Seattle (35-53) at Oakland (47-41), 10:05 pm EDT

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- An exhausted Seattle Mariners bullpen is begging for a deep outing by a starting pitcher.

Jarrod Washburn (4-7, 5.08 ERA) will look to provide such help on Monday as the Mariners open a four-game series against the Oakland Athletics.

Between Tuesday and Friday, Mariners relievers combined for 13 appearances and 16 1/3 innings. Sean Green, Mark Lowe and Roy Corcoran have each had appearances of two or more innings in that span while trying to adapt to life without closer J.J. Putz, who is on the disabled list.

Adding Ryan Rowland-Smith to the rotation on Sunday didn't help matters, either, but it was a necessity since Felix Hernandez is still on the shelf and Miguel Batista is currently nursing minor injuries.

In addition, Erik Bedard is still experiencing some problems with various nagging injuries, which have hampered his production in his first season as Seattle's ace.

"I don't think he's really totally feeling right, with whatever was happening before -- hip, back and all that," Seattle manager Jim Riggleman said in a Seattle Times report. "He may be pitching a lot more than he should."

Washburn may be the perfect candidate to give the bullpen a much-deserved breather, since he has thrown at least six innings in five of his past seven starts.

Dana Eveland (6-5, 3.42) will take the mound for Oakland, which is coming off a four-game split with the Chicago White Sox.

The righthander hasn't lost since June 10, when he dropped a 3-2 decision to the New York Yankees.