M’s lose 5th straight

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners ended a day of taut emotions Wednesday with something they hadn’t experienced much this season.

No, not a victory.

The Tampa Bay Rays took care of that with three runs in the eighth inning and three in the ninth to beat the Mariners 8-3 at Safeco Field.

This one contained a healthy dose of physical pain by the Mariners, along with their fifth straight loss.

Besides losing Milton Bradley indefinitely because of the emotional stress he’s feeling, the Mariners played without relief pitcher Mark Lowe, who went on the 15-day disabled list because of inflammation in his back.

And before the game had ended, shortstop Jack Wilson and catcher Rob Johnson were hurting as well, forcing the Mariners to consider another roster move before tonight’s series finale.

Wilson came out of the game after the third inning because of a tight right hamstring and was replaced by Josh Wilson.

“He had an issue with that in spring training and missed three days,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “We’re hoping it’s not any longer than that.”

Johnson took a foul tip off his right index finger in the eighth inning and, although he clearly was in pain as team trainers examined him, he refused to leave the game. When he came to bat in the bottom of the eighth, Johnson struggled to keep his right hand on the bat as he followed through with his swing.

“He bruised the knuckles but he didn’t hit anything clean,” Wakamatsu said. “We’re going to have it X-rayed but we don’t think there’s anything broken.”

And that didn’t count the sting of the 11 hits the Rays laid on the Mariners, or the crowd of 14,627, the second-smallest in Safeco Field history, or a Mariners offense that went soft again after Franklin Gutierrez gave them a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the fourth inning.

The Rays came back with two runs off Mariners starter Cliff Lee in the fifth, and Wakamatsu sensed tension in his hitters the rest of the game. Between the fourth and ninth innings, the Mariners had two baserunners — Ryan Langerhans’ seventh-inning walk and Ichiro Suzuki’s eight-inning single against Rays starter Matt Garza.

The M’s did score in the ninth on Josh Wilson’s RBI ground out against reliever Grant Balfour, but by then it was too late.

“Offensively it’s the same story,” Wakamatsu said. “Guti hits the two-run home run and puts us up by two and Cliff comes out and gives up two, and the offense goes back into its shell a little bit.”

Lee allowed 10 hits and four earned runs in eight innings, although the game didn’t get away until the Rays scored three times in the eighth. They were helped in that inning by a misplayed bunt that went for a single and a throwing error by Josh Wilson.

“I’ve got to do a better job after we get the lead there in the fourth,” Lee said. “We score two runs and I go back out there and give up two runs and tie the game back. I’ve got to do a better job of keeping our team with a lead and getting us back into the dugout.”

Wakamatsu didn’t lay this one on Lee as much as the Mariners’ soft offense.

“Once he gave up those two (runs), you could feel it in the dugout a little bit,” Wakamatsu said. “The way we’ve been going, the offense has not done anything. I think it puts so much pressure on a pitcher to be perfect, but I thought he threw the ball pretty good.”

Ken Griffey Jr. squared up a ball for the first time this season, driving a ground-rule double to the right-center field gap in the fourth inning. It was Griffey’s 1,192nd double, tying him with Rafael Palmeiro for sixth place on baseball’s all-time doubles list.

Gutierrez continued his rise from a recent slump, going 2-for-4. His homer was the Mariners’ first in 76 innings going back to April 25 at Chicago.

“He’s laying off some pitches that, when he went through that stretch, he was striking out (on) quite a bit,” Wakamatsu said. “For me, when a guy hits a home run opposite field, you know he’s staying on it.”

Problem is, the Mariners could use more than one player doing that.