needle bearings fell out of leg. help!!

I pulled the gearcase on my 1973 evinrude 18hp to find 9 needle bearings drop out of the leg. Is this the bearings from the connecting rods? what does this mean? how hard to fix? what kind of damage might have occured?

this motor ran fine last summer. no signs of any issues?

Also can i get at the crank case with out pulling everytihng of the power head like the manual states?

A lower unit oil change and waterpump replacement has resulted in me finding these pins.

I have the same motor, just a few yrs older, but I haven't had it long enough to really know much about the internals. Try over at iboats.com, they have TONS of information on these motors

Yes i just did that thanks...

Anyone else have any ideas I'm stuck at this point.