Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said Wednesday he was pleased with the progress being made by Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma after his latest rehab start.
On the disabled list since April with a strained lat muscle, Iwakuma allowed one run on five hits over 5⅔ innings, striking out six and walking one in Triple-A Tacoma's 8-4 win against Las Vegas on Tuesday.
"He did okay. It was better than the last outing," McClendon said of the 34-year-old Iwakuma.
"The velocity got better each outing. I know he touched 91 last night, and that's a good sign. He's moving in the right direction," he was quoted as saying on the Mariners' official website.
Iwakuma on Tuesday left the mound with two outs and one on in the sixth after bursting a blister on his finger, but said it was only a minor issue and that he felt ready to make a return to the majors.
"That (the blister) certainly will be part of the evaluation, and then we'll go from there," McClendon said. "I don't want anybody pitching around anything. We need him 100 percent, and hopefully he will be 100 percent."
Former Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles ace Iwakuma has pitched in just three games for Seattle this season and is 0-1 with a 6.61 ERA.