Nothing clicks for M’s in 9-1 loss

SEATTLE – There was a bright side to what took place at Safeco Field on Saturday.

Really.

Ryan Franklin gave up 12 hits, “but 10 of them could have been outs,” the Seattle Mariners’ starting pitcher said.

Jeff Harris, a 31-year-old rookie, pitched well again in relief, although the Mariners seem set on sending him back to the minor leagues.

Scott Spiezio made contact in two of his three at-bats, although they were both popups to the infield and he still hasn’t gotten a hit since July 20.

And the sun shined on a 70-degree afternoon.

Besides all that, however, was the cloud of another Mariners loss, 9-1 when the Angels pounded 15 hits and the M’s offense fell silent against Bartolo Colon.

Colon held them to four hits and a freak home run in eight innings, pushing his record to 15-6.

That, above any other factor that turned the game into a lackluster-looking effort by the Mariners, was the reason they looked so feeble, M’s manager Mike Hargrove said.

“When Colon’s on his game, he makes everything kind of look blah,” Hargrove said.

How blah?

Before Franklin could shake off the rust from his 10-day suspension for violating baseball’s steroids policy, the Angels had six hits and three runs.

By the time the Mariners scored their only run, the Angels had eight after scoring five in the fifth inning.

Colon couldn’t have gotten a better cushion to work with.

“He was throwing to both sides of the plate, changing speeds, throwing anywhere from 86 to 97 mph,” Hargrove said. “He threw strikes and when you’re doing that, it’s a tough row to hoe.”

Colon won his fourth straight game and should have pitched a shutout.

That ended in the sixth inning on what looked like a deep, but routine, fly ball to the right-field wall by Ichiro Suzuki. Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero drifted to the wall and raised his glove to make the catch, then stood amazed as the ball bounced out of it and over the wall for a home run, Suzuki’s 10th this season.

By then, the outcome was secure and the Mariners seemed to play like it.

In the fifth, when the Angels sent 10 men up to the plate and got six hits, the Mariners helped them with two errors. Center fielder Jeremy Reed over-ran a single to center and Chone Figgins scored.

Later, Raul Ibanez’s throw toward the plate was too high for cutoff man Richie Sexson, who tipped the ball away from catcher Wiki Gonzalez to give the Angels another scoring chance that they converted.

“The only time we got sloppy was when Reed looked up and the ball got by him, and then he didn’t turn around and bust his butt to get the ball,” Hargrove said. “The other time, Raul dove for the ball and got up and tried to make a play. If (his throw) is a little bit higher, Gonzalez catches it. And if it’s a little bit lower Richie catches it.”

And if Franklin had been as sharp Saturday as he was before the suspension – he went 3-1 with a 3.93 ERA in July – the game wouldn’t have gotten away so quickly. The Angels nicked him for five hits and two runs in the first inning and Figgins’ solo home run in the second.

Yes, the crowd booed Franklin when he was replaced in the fifth inning, although it wasn’t clear if they were upset with his steroid suspension or the game that turned sour. When he was introduced before the game, the majority of the response was positive.

Hargrove believed the layoff because of the suspension affected Franklin early in the game.

“I thought from the third inning on he had better command of his pitches,” Hargrove said. “They didn’t hit a lot of balls hard off him, but they certainly found the holes to hit them through. They put the ball in play and got the base hits.”

Franklin leaned on that silver lining despite a 41/3-inning outing that was his shortest since he went 41/3 on April 27 against the Rangers.

“I could have easily given up three hits instead of 12,” said Franklin, who allowed 10 singles. “I felt sharp. I didn’t miss any spots,”

Neither did Harris, who gave up two hits in 32/3 innings, including Juan Rivera’s solo home run in the seventh. Harris has a 2.51 earned run average in 141/3 innings, although the team’s need for another position player may force the Mariners to send him back to Class AAA Tacoma.

Asked if he knows the team’s plans for Harris, Hargrove said he did.

“But I can’t say,” Hargrove said. “We will do something soon.”