SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners’ run production returned Thursday night, just as manager John McLaren wanted.
But so did shoddy defense and a meltdown by the pitching staff.
The Mariners blew a 5-0 lead when the Baltimore Orioles scored in five straight innings, including a four-run seventh in what became an 8-7 victory over the M’s at Safeco Field.
After an eventful night of rallies, errors, arguments, the ejection of McLaren and a tying two-run homer by Ichiro Suzuki in the seventh inning, the Orioles got the last whack.
Brian Roberts led off the eighth inning with a home run off Mariners reliever Sean Green to break a 7-7 tie.
“When you’ve got a 5-0 lead, you’ve got to slam the door and get it done,” McLaren said. “We just didn’t do that.”
The Mariners have lost four of their past six games, and this one included important work by two Orioles who the Mariners traded away to get pitcher Erik Bedard in the offseason.
Center fielder Adam Jones played his best game of the season, going 3-for-4 with three runs batted in, including a two-run single that capped a four-run rally when the Orioles took a 7-5 lead.
George Sherrill, now the Orioles’ closer after he’d made his name as the Mariners’ left-handed setup specialist, recorded his eighth save the hard way. He gave up a broken-bat leadoff single to Yuniesky Betancourt, but got Ichiro Suzuki on a double-play grounder to second and ended the game when Jose Lopez grounded out to shortstop.
Sherrill is 8-for-8 in save opportunities, five of them against the Mariners.
For the Mariners, it was a dismal finish to a game that started well.
They scored four runs in the third inning when they not only got some big hits, but also drew walks, pulled off a double steal and hit a couple of sacrifice flies. Jose Vidro, a much-maligned designated hitter because of his .200 average to start the season, delivered a two-run ground-rule double.
That inning, plus Adrian Beltre’s solo home run in the second inning off Orioles starter Adam Loewen, were the beginning of an eventful — and nerve-wracking — night for the Mariners.
It gave the M’s a 5-0 lead, which was far from safe given starter Jarrod Washburn’s struggles.
Washburn, already suffering from the flu, was hit on the ankle by a grounder in the first inning. His pitch count climbed quickly and he lasted five innings, only one when he retired the Orioles 1-2-3. Jay Payton’s solo homer in the fourth made a 5-1 score, and the Orioles added a second run in the fifth to make it 5-2.
Despite a three-run cushion, things were crumbling for the Mariners. They’d made three errors but, in their opinion, so did the umpires.
Umpires missed a balk move in the first inning by Loewen, who stepped toward home but threw to first base as Suzuki broke for second. Suzuki was thrown out.
In the sixth, with Roy Corcoran relieving Washburn, Payton was ruled safe by first base ump Greg Gibson on an infield dribbler up the middle, although TV replays showed that Jose Lopez’s throw arrived before Payton’s foot hit the bag. Payton scored after another infield hit and a double-play grounder, making the score 5-3.
Then everything unraveled in the seventh, including the Mariners’ lead and especially their temper.
Arthur Rhodes gave up back-to-back singles to Roberts and Mora, then walked Markakis after he thought he’d thrown a couple of good pitches that plate umpire Casey Moser called balls.
McLaren, who’d already argued with Gibson after his call at first base in the sixth, went to the mound to pull Rhodes. The veteran left-hander chirped at Moser as he walked to the dugout, but that was nothing compared with the lashing McLaren gave the umpire.
McLaren walked straight to home plate, not the dugout, and Moser allowed him a few words before ejecting him from the game. McLaren transformed into an expletive-spewing human bobblehead, not only critiquing the plate umpire’s performance, but the job Gibson had done at first base as well.
“Rhodes was around the plate, let’s put it that way,” McLaren said. “I’m not putting this on anybody but us. I was frustrated, that’s all I can say.”
From there, the Mariners disintegrated.
Mark Lowe gave up a sacrifice fly to Kevin Millar, then an RBI single to Aubrey Huff as the Orioles tied the score 5-5. Jones launched a two-run double to left field for a 7-5 lead.
Suzuki pulled the M’s back with his two-run homer in the seventh, but Roberts added a final touch when he drove a pitch from Sean Green into the right-field seats for the winning home run in the eighth.
Roberts finished the series 4-for-11 and is batting .320 against the Mariners this season.
“We had a three-run lead when the bullpen took over and we just couldn’t hang on,” McLaren said. “We’ve just got to do a better job.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com.
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