Two straight bad outings by the bullpen will fuel the skeptics

Jose Lopez sat at his locker, back turned to onlookers, and huffed every few seconds.

David Aardsma shook his head in disbelief.

Don Wakamatsu spoke in soft tones and talked about the need to stay strong.

In case you were wondering if the Mariners understood how much they blew it Wednesday afternoon, the answer was evident on their long faces.

"You know," pitcher Jason Vargas said with his head lowered, "that's baseball sometimes."

The game throws triple-digit heat at your psyche sometimes. So today, we wonder how quickly the Mariners will recover from this setback.

They led 3-0 entering the ninth inning against Baltimore with Aardsma, the blossoming closer who hadn't allowed an earned run in seven weeks, jogging out to the mound. And about a half-hour later, they left the dugout with a 5-3 loss at Safeco Field.

It was probably their worst late-game, come-from-ahead defeat since Brandon Morrow turned into Wild Thing in the season's second game. To make matters worse, this disappointment came a day after the bullpen allowed 10 runs over two innings to turn a promising return by Erik Bedard into a 12-4 rout.

So today, we wonder if the bullpen's ragged two-game stretch represents isolated heartache or a blooming trend.

Wakamatsu, who has done such marvelous work setting the agenda for this ballclub, prefers to consider it an anomaly. After the game, he was adamant about that point.

"Sometimes, you go through stretches where things get away from you a little bit," the manager said. "But I still believe in them."

He's right. Two games shouldn't override the bullpen's accomplishments over the first 84 games. The Mariners entered Wednesday third in the American League in bullpen ERA (3.65). They had the second-best ERA (2.85) in the late innings of close games. The bullpen has often been the biggest reason that the Mariners have the lowest overall ERA in the AL despite having three starters who don't pitch deep into games.

The flip side is that skeptics believe the bullpen will be too worn by season's end. Was this the first sign?

Once again, Wakamatsu was quick to dispute the notion.

"I think everybody is going through it," he said, referring to other teams. "We just need to worry about getting focused and staying in the moment. My point is, we're going to stay strong and do what we need to do.

"It wasn't pretty. We're not proud of it. But we have to get back out there."

In this game, Aardsma didn't have it, but Lopez, the second baseman, also committed two errors in the ninth and third baseman Chris Woodward couldn't bare-hand a slow roller. Two of the five runs Aardsma allowed were unearned. He allowed four hits and didn't get a hitter out before he was pulled from the game.

"When I did throw strikes, too many of them were right down the middle," he lamented afterward.

It was only Aardsma's second blown save in 19 tries. His first blown save came on May 31, and he responded by destroying hitters for more than a month, all the way until this disappointment.

Considering how well he's pitched this season, he deserves a break. He'll likely return to form in his next outing and start a new dominant stretch.

But if the Mariners want to be a contender, they can't lose home series to sub-.500 teams, especially when they have the game in control. These two losses to the Orioles will sting for a while.

"It's one game for me," Aardsma said. "Unfortunately, it'll probably happen again. But I'll do everything I can to make sure it doesn't."

The Mariners certainly hope it doesn't. They've done an incredible job rising to a competitive level this season, but it's only fair to wonder if they're really this good. Fears of an eventual meltdown are legitimate.

Wednesday provided more reason for concern. So the resilient Mariners must lift their heads once more and respond immediately to the trauma.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com. For more columns and the Extra Points blog, visit seattletimes.com/sports