Twins deliver 11-3 drubbing of M's

The really bad news for Mariners starter Horacio Ramirez didn't come until after he'd absorbed his latest pounding.

That's hard to believe, considering the pair of near 400-foot blasts he'd yielded for a double and a home run to a slap-hitting shortstop with a .339 slugging percentage. Or the season-high six runs in his home park Ramirez allowed in only five innings against a Minnesota Twins squad that had scored just 30 runs in a dozen August games.

But even worse news for Ramirez after his team's 11-3 loss on Tuesday night was that Mariners manager John McLaren told reporters he would "go home and think about" the pitcher's immediate future before commenting further. That's not a good thing when it's considered Ramirez's next starts are due to come on the road, where he's pitched far worse than at home.

"I think right now it feels like everything is going wrong for me," Ramirez said. "If I make a mistake, it gets hit. If I make a good pitch, it gets through the infield. I guess it's up to me to just weather the storm and try to figure things out."

But Ramirez may be running out of time in that department. He's already pored over years' worth of video of him pitching with the Atlanta Braves, in a fruitless effort to pinpoint the root of his troubles.

The crowd of 33,729 fans at Safeco Field moaned with impatience from the first inning onward as Ramirez allowed runners to pile up on the basepaths. Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett crushed a double beyond the reach of speedy Ichiro in the first inning, then delivered only his fourth home run of the season in the fifth and final frame worked by the Seattle left-hander.

That blast to left made it a 4-1 game, coming on Ramirez's first pitch after his team had gotten on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. Ramirez then yielded two more runs when second baseman Jose Lopez failed to make a tough, over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field.

Tough break to be sure.

But when your earned run average climbs from 7.12 to 7.38 and you've built your 7-4 record largely off of eight runs per game of offensive support, there is little room for Ramirez to plead his case.

Instead he took his lumps like a man. He admitted he hasn't gotten the job done and that he is as frustrated as anyone in the Mariners' clubhouse.

"The one thing that I like to be is consistent," he said. "And I think I'm pretty far from that right now."

The Mariners were frustrated as well, blowing a rare opportunity to gain ground in both the division and wild-card races as the Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees also went down to defeat. Twins starter Matt Garza had a 6-1 lead after Ramirez left and didn't allow another run until Seattle scored two in the eighth inning.

By then, the Twins had already added a pair off Ryan Rowland-Smith in the seventh and would pile on three more off newcomer John Parrish in a sloppily played ninth.

Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima summed it up best when asked if there was a major difference from Ramirez's past efforts.

"I don't think I saw anything different than from the past," Johjima said.

Not what a pitcher with Ramirez's track record, which includes a 13.50 earned-run average on the road, wants to be hear.

Johjima was speaking through an interpreter and not trying to be funny or sarcastic -- merely to explain some of what has plagued Seattle's weakest pitching link.

"He had great movement with his fastball today but he couldn't locate it, especially early in the count," Johjima offered up. "When you see a pitcher like him, you need to get that first pitch for a strike and he wasn't able to get it today and that's what cost him the loss."

McLaren was admittedly "not too happy about the game" and loathe to discuss his pitcher's future until after a good night's sleep.

"Horacio had problems locating," McLaren said. "His release point seemed like it was all over the place.

"We've got to get him going," McLaren added. "We'll talk about it tomorrow."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners