M's hit new low: 8 losses in a row

TORONTO — This wasn't how September baseball was supposed to feel inside a Mariners clubhouse that is wondering when the team will win another game.

The arrival of what manager John McLaren calls the "sprint" portion of the schedule was greeted by yet another defeat in a season slipping away from Seattle.

One of the worst parts of the team's 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday was that even the bigger things going right for the Mariners weren't enough to halt the slide.

And when a contending team is reeling from a season-high eight-game losing streak, every lost opportunity tends to hurt just a little more.

"What I wanted to do is pitch a good game," Mariners starter Miguel Batista said. "The only way we're going to get out of the streak is by playing good baseball. And I know that 75 percent of that responsibility is going to be in the pitching department. So, I wanted to make sure that I gave us a chance."

Batista provided just that, turning in a 117-pitch performance in his first seven-inning effort since late July. The only run allowed by Batista came on a Gregg Zaun homer to right in his final frame.

But the way things went offensively for Seattle, that was a run too many. The Mariners grounded into three double plays — including one in the ninth by Raul Ibanez — while stranding Ichiro at third base with less than two out on another occasion.

Ichiro managed to tie the score with a single in the eighth off Toronto starter Dustin McGowan. It was a short-lived reprieve, however, since reliever Sean Green walked the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the inning, then allowed singles by Frank Thomas and Troy Glaus that put Toronto ahead to stay.

"We're playing the game the way we're supposed to play it," McLaren said. "We're just not getting anything done."

The Mariners did indeed come up short when it mattered, falling two games back of the New York Yankees in the wild-card hunt ahead of another critical series with them starting Monday in the Bronx.

A crowd of 30,672 fans at the Rogers Center held their breath in the ninth as closer Jeremy Accardo hit Jose Guillen with a pitch to put the tying run on with none out.

Seattle trotted out Willie Bloomquist as a pinch-runner. But Bloomquist never had a chance to show off his speed, or test the arm of Blue Jays catcher Zaun — who has thrown out only 13.4 percent of base runners this year — since Ibanez hit into a first-pitch, 4-6-3 double play.

It turns out, though, that the Mariners didn't want Ibanez taking any pitches to give Bloomquist a shot at second base.

"We gave Willie the green light, told him to look for certain things from their pitcher," McLaren said. "I wanted Raul to hit a gapper or a home run and I didn't want to put him behind in the count. I don't think, in that situation, that you take a pitch.

"Raul is very capable of putting the ball out of the ballpark. We just wanted him to get a good pitch. He hit the ball good, but it was right at the guy."

Bloomquist noted that Accardo is very quick to the plate, making it tougher to get a good jump. At that point, he said, he preferred to keep the right side of the infield open for Ibanez by forcing the first baseman to hold him on base.

"You've got to let your best hitter do his thing," Bloomquist said.

Instead, Ibanez grounded into the fifth double play turned by Toronto's slick-fielding defense in the two games. Toronto had used a twin killing to escape the eighth inning after Ichiro's single, with Jose Vidro grounding into that one.

All the missed chances were huge on a day McGowan limited the Mariners to six hits over eight innings. McGowan outdueled Batista, who equaled a season high for pitches in trying to keep a tiring bullpen out of the game.

One of the bullpen members slowing steadily has been Green, whose earned-run average since Aug. 1 stands at 5.71. Though the singles off him weren't exactly rockets, he has allowed runs in three of his past five contests and hits in each of his past six.

"I wasn't missing by too much," he said. "But it's one of those things where if you walk the leadoff guy, you're going to get in trouble. I made some pitches to get out of it, but the ground balls didn't get to our infielders.

"That's baseball sometimes. That seems to be the way it's going, but we'll turn it around."

Green was working his third consecutive day, though McLaren feels the reliever tends to overthrow less when he gets more regular outings as opposed to too much rest. McLaren now has to hope Jeff Weaver delivers an outing today similar to Batista's and the offense doesn't waste another opportunity to halt this season-threatening skid.

"We need to hit better with runners on third base," McLaren said. "We need to pitch better in certain situations. That's why we've lost eight in a row. We haven't been doing those things."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com. Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners