SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners foiled the Baltimore Orioles once with the bases loaded and nobody out. They couldn’t foil them twice.
Two innings after escaping the ultimate jam, the Mariners unraveled under mistakes by their bullpen and defense in the ninth inning Wednesday, when the Orioles scored five runs for a 5-3 victory over the M’s at Safeco Field.
The culprits?
Closer David Aardsma, who’d converted 17 of 18 save opportunities this season, allowed three straight hits and a walk in the ninth. Then the support behind him crumbled when second baseman Jose Lopez made two errors — bobbling a potential double-play grounder and later making a bad throw to first base.
It was the third straight game the bullpen has been called to protect a lead and didn’t, and this one was more disheartening than Sunday’s loss at Boston or Tuesday night’s loss to the Orioles.
Going into tonight’s opener of a key four-game series against division rival Texas, the Mariners are 4½ games out of first place in the American League West.
“The last two days weren’t pretty and I’m not proud of it,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “But we’re going to stay strong and stay together and get back on the horse.”
It helps that the Mariners’ biggest horse, All-Star ace Felix Hernandez, will start tonight against the Rangers.
It’s been the finishing, not the starting, that has plagued the Mariners lately.
Of the 17 runs the Orioles scored in the three-game series, only two — yielded in the first inning Tuesday by Erik Bedard — were against Mariners starting pitchers. Jarrod Washburn pitched the game of his life Monday in a one-hit complete-game shutout, Bedard gave up two in the first inning and nothing else in his four innings Tuesday, and Jason Vargas held the Orioles scoreless in five innings Wednesday.
However, like Bedard on Tuesday, Vargas’ pitch count grew rapidly because of five walks. He threw first-pitch strikes to just eight of 22 hitters and was pulled after 97 pitches.
Miguel Batista gave them some bases-loaded, nobody-out practice in the sixth when he allowed a hit and a walk, along with third baseman Chris Woodward’s error. Then left-hander Garrett Olson pulled a great escape with a strikeout and a double-play grounder.
That kept the Mariners ahead 2-0, the lead supplied by Lopez with his two-run homer off the left-field foul pole in the first inning. Lopez became the first Mariner this season to reach the 50-RBI mark.
Mark Lowe pitched a 1-2-3 eighth and the Mariners added what appeared to be a lockdown run when Lopez doubled with two outs and scored on shortstop Oscar Salazar’s throwing error.
Aardsma took the mound in the ninth and immediately showed he wasn’t sharp after going three days since pitching. Melvin Mora doubled to right field, Gregg Zaun walked and Salazar singled to load the bases.
“I tried to over-pitch,” said Aardsma, in his first season as a closer. “When I did throw strikes, they were right down the middle and easy pitches for them to hit. Once I got guys on base, I made some good pitches.”
Behind him, the ball seemed to find everything but leather.
Adam Jones got just enough of a splitter that he flicked a roller toward third base that Woodward charged but couldn’t handle. That scored a run to make the score 3-1.
Nick Markakis hit a bouncer to the right side that was a classic double-play ball, except the ball spun out of Lopez’s glove as he hurried to throw it to second base. Error and a 3-2 Mariners lead, still with nobody out.
“I was doing too much on that one,” Lopez said. “We win by two runs if I make a double play with nobody out and the bases loaded.”
Instead, the bases remained loaded, at least until Ty Wigginton slapped a single to center that scored two runs for a 4-3 Orioles lead. Wakamatsu brought right-hander Sean White to the mound, but Lopez threw away a ball at first base to allow another run to score.
Former Mariner George Sherrill recorded his 19th save, sending the Mariners into the Texas series needing to forget that only three innings of bad relief pitching beat them the past two days.
Wakamatsu, who has spoken all year about “belief systems” with his players, remained behind his relievers all the way. He pointed out the 21 one-run games the Marines have won because of them.
“Sometimes you go through stretches where they struggle a little bit,” he said. “Now’s a time when we’re going to have to regroup a little bit. But I believe in these guys. To be in that many one-run ballgames, they’ve done a lot of things right.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com
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