ANAHEIM, Calif. – You may have read this before, but Brandon Morrow will slide into Luke French’s spot in Seattle’s starting rotation for the rest of the season, beginning Friday night against Texas.

That was reported last week, and then the Tacoma Rainiers reached the postseason and Morrow was in rotation to start for them Friday.

Not gonna happen.

“What changed was injuries to Sean White and Chris Jakubauskas in our bullpen,” general manager Jack Zduriencik said Wednesday. “Brandon was coming up for Friday’s game, then the Rainiers made the playoffs and we thought it might be good to give him a taste of that kind of baseball.

“But we have needs that changed that. Luke French and Jason Vargas give us some depth in the bullpen, and we need that, so Brandon will start against the Rangers on Friday.”

Morrow went 5-3 in 10 Tacoma starts, pitching 55 innings and striking out 40 batters. After starting the season as Seattle’s closer, he saved six games but lost that job and then started six games with the Mariners.

He was sent to the Rainiers to start regularly, and he has passed the tests Triple-A afforded him.

Sweeney on a tear

In his last 15 games, Mike Sweeney has batted .418 with five doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI – raising his season average from .228 to .277.

What’s changed?

“Alan Cockrell,” Sweeney said, naming the Mariners’ hitting coach. “He’s helped me all season, but the last few weeks he’s really helped me slow the game down. When you’re slumping, an 88 mph fastball seems like 120 mph.

“Alan talks about the physical and the mental side of hitting. I’ve slowed my body down at the plate, used my hands a little more.”

Short hops

Shortstop Jack Wilson was out of the lineup with the flu and is day-to-day in availability. … Team physicians looked at the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test results on White’s right shoulder but the Mariners won’t talk specifics until today. … Jakubauskas has a knot in his right shoulder, and likely won’t pitch for another two days.

On tap

Seattle concludes its series against the Angels with a 7:05 p.m. game today that will be televised on FSN. Probable starting pitchers: Ryan Rowland-Smith (3-2, 3.88 ERA) vs. John Lackey (9-7, 3.74).

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com

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