Mariners drop third in a row against Cleveland

A reflective-looking Mike Sweeney sat by his locker, his young son in his lap, looking every bit the part of a player trying to savor the final weeks of a farewell tour of baseball.

It seems inevitable this will be Sweeney's final season after 15 years in the majors and, until this past weekend, he'd enjoyed a magical Mariners ride that looked as if it might finally land that playoff berth missing from his resume. But now, after a 12-3 defeat to the Cleveland Indians on Sunday capped a miserable weekend for Sweeney's team, the dreams of a Seattle postseason appear to have vanished.

And that's left Sweeney, one of the clubhouse leaders, talking about the need to hold this team together, if not in terms of roster members with the trade deadline looming, then at least when it comes to playing as a unit on the field.

"During the game, we're going out there and we're trying to win," Sweeney said. "But after the game, when there's dead time, you look over at [Jarrod] Washburn's locker and you wonder if you're going to see him again. And that's just the reality of the game. We have one of the best pitchers in the game who's going to be a free-agent and there's probably a handful of teams, if not a dozen teams, that would like to have a guy like Wash down the stretch."

Washburn is bracing himself for a possible departure. His next scheduled start is Tuesday, but it's doubtful the Mariners would want him back out on the mound if they do indeed plan on trading him.

"Having Erik Bedard get hurt is not going to help keep this team together," Sweeney said. "But inevitably, our future is in our hands. If we come out tomorrow and play good ball, who knows what's going to happen?"

But getting swept by Cleveland, in front of 30,224 fans at Safeco Field, might have taken that decision out of players' hands.

One of the teams looking at Washburn, the Milwaukee Brewers, have not scheduled a starter for Tuesday after an injury to Seth McClung. The Brewers did call up Class AAA starter Tim Dillard, but have yet to officially announce that he'll pitch.

Brewers manager Ken Macha suggested to reporters over the weekend that he was confident the team would acquire another starter by the Tuesday game. The Mariners have interest in Brewers shortstop prospect Alcides Escobar, though it would likely take a bigger package than Washburn alone to land him.

Sweeney doubled off the left-field wall against Indians starter Cliff Lee in the first inning, then scored one of two Seattle runs to take a 2-1 lead. But Mariners starter Jason Vargas needed 83 pitches to get through four-plus innings and left with the bases loaded, nobody out and Seattle down 3-2 in the fifth.

Shawn Kelley came on and served up a grand slam to Jhonny Peralta that blew the game open. Miguel Batista yielded a two-run homer to Travis Hafner and a solo blast by Ryan Garko in the sixth to cap a third straight rout.

Michael Saunders had his first major league hit for Seattle in the seventh, then singled again in the ninth for his first run batted in. Saunders kept the seventh-inning ball and dedicated it to his parents, Jane and Derek, who attended the game.

Vargas had allowed the game to come undone in the fifth inning, fielding a bunt with a runner on second and none out in a 2-2 contest, then trying to nab lead runner Grady Sizemore at third base. Sizemore, who'd led the game off with a homer against Vargas, slid in safely and a huge inning was underway.

"When it was bunted, I looked at [third baseman] Jack [Hannahan] and I thought I saw him closer to the bag when he stopped and went to retreat," Vargas said. "I thought he'd be able to get back. After the fact, he was probably too close in for me to try to make that play."

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu called the series "a tough three days" and mentioned the bunt as one of several "little things" the Mariners have to work on to avoid similar defeats.

Sweeney said the players will have to shake the weekend off.

"We could have lost 2-1 the last three nights and they're still hard," he said. "But it's tough to get knocked out three nights in a row. The Indians swung the bats extremely well and we didn't. They pitched well and we didn't. We hope to keep this team together by the time July 31 rolls around."

That may no longer be an option.