Great outing by Harang; Hultzen, Ramirez on the move

By Shannon Drayer

Aaron Harang did what he needed to, and that was good to see. He threw his first complete game since 2009, and the Mariners won their second straight by beating the Padres 9-0.

Hisashi Iwakuma’s Sunday start aside, it was a much needed solid performance from a starting pitcher. On the field after the game, Harang told me that the starters got together and had a talk about needing to do more. He obviously responded.

Starting pitching has been a concern with the biggest problem being there is not much ready at the minor-league level. You can – and they very well may – roll the dice on Jeremy Bonderman should Brandon Maurer stumble badly Tuesday. Noesi is up and is an option to start, and while his last spot start made him interesting, the history there is not good. Blake Beavan has yet to show the consistency you would want to see before calling him up.

There may be other options in the not-so-distant future. I asked Jack Zduriencik on the postgame show Monday what the status of Erasmo Ramirez and Danny Hultzen is, and it turns out they are on the move.

Ramirez is scheduled to start Tuesday for Double-A Jackson, and Hultzen has reported to Arizona and will be ready soon to throw in games in extended spring training. They will build him up slowly, but he has been throwing from a mound and had good success before he had to be shut down.

Two players to keep an eye on.