By Bob Dutton

The News Tribune

If the Mariners, with their patchwork rotation, are to make a genuine postseason push over the season’s final 30 games, the driving force — as manager Scott Servais keeps saying — needs to be their potent but often inconsistent attack.

“It’s got to be everybody chipping in,” he said again Monday after a 7-6 loss at Baltimore. “It can’t just be the same guys every night.”

There were some hopeful signs before the Mariners ran into a buzz-saw in the form of Dylan Bundy on Tuesday at Camden Yards.

Bundy pitched a 1-hit shutout in a 4-0 Orioles win. Ben Gamel, Mike Zunino and Jean Segura went a combined 0-for- 7.

Left fielder Gamel, after some subtle swing adjustments, drove in a career-high five runs Monday after registering just four RBI over his previous 29 games.

“I’m really trying to simplify it,” Gamel told reporters after the game. “I’ve just felt rushed and am really trying to slow things down.”

Catcher Zunino is surging again at 8-for-19 in his last five games, including three doubles and a homer. He resembles his June form, when he batted .304 and had 31 RBI in 24 games. Not the guy who batted .188 in the next 38 games.

“I’m getting there,” he said recently. “Obviously, I made some quick changes and June was nice and rewarding in the sense of results. Then probably about two weeks ago I tweaked something with my hands (and) really felt good since then.

“It’s sort of the second phase of making this swing adjustment. I’ve been feeling better up there, feeling more free and easy and able to get my swing off.”

What would really help now is for shortstop Segura and right fielder Mitch Haniger to pull out of extended slumps.

Segura’s average is down 52 points to .300 over his last 39 games, and he has just four hits in his last 35 at-bats. He also has a .293 on-base percentage during those last 39 games; it was .391 prior to his slide.

Haniger is hitless in his last 18 at-bats and is 5-for-34 in nine games since returning from a three-week absence after being hit in the face by a pitch. His overall average is down to .240.