M's Ramirez can't get an out, leaving his future bleak

Last Monday, when Horacio Ramirez got knocked out in the second inning by Oakland, manager John McLaren said he had to sleep on it before deciding to keep Ho-Ram in the rotation.

Saturday, after Ramirez got knocked out in the first inning by Tampa Bay -- without registering an out in a 6-2 Mariners defeat -- McLaren avoided the inevitable question altogether.

"I'm not getting into that," he said, cutting short his postgame interview session when asked about Ramirez's future. "I'm emotionally upset. I'm not going to talk about anything else."

McLaren didn't like the way the game unfolded any more than the 33,793 restless fans at Safeco Field, especially with the Mariners poised to pick up a vital game on the losing Yankees in the wild-card standings.

Instead, they never recovered from their 4-0 first-inning deficit, and remained 5 ½ games behind the Yankees with 15 to play.

McLaren wielded the quickest hook of his brief managerial career, yanking Ramirez after just four batters and 19 pitches.

"We try to give our guys a chance to work out of it, but we don't have that luxury anymore," he said. "We're fighting an uphill battle here."

McLaren had talked before the game about how he hoped for "seven strong innings from Horacio, and I'd feel real good about that."

As it turned out, Ramirez fell short by only ... seven innings. Ramirez stayed in long enough to give up one run and exited with the bases loaded.

All three runs came around to score against reliever Jorge Campillo, who had begun to warm up after Ramirez pitched to his second batter.

"I was surprised when there were runners on first and second, and I turned around and saw someone warming up," said Ramirez, whose earned-run average rose from 6.80 to 7.16.

"He's the boss. The moves he makes are the ones he thinks are best for the team and give us the best chance to win. He took me out. That's what happened."

Asked if seeing Campillo already warming up rattled him, Ramirez replied, "Not at all. I made two or three good pitches to [Carlos] Pena, a guy with 39 home runs. He just fouled them off."

Following singles by the first two hitters, Pena eventually walked to load the bases. Ramirez was gone when the next hitter, B.J. Upton, delivered a run-scoring single.

"Horacio just couldn't break loose, couldn't get his location, whatever," McLaren said.

Ramirez wouldn't speculate on his future in the rotation.

"All I can do is prepare, and when I do go out there, go out with a positive attitude," he said.

If Ramirez is yanked from the rotation, his start Saturday could be his final one in a Mariners uniform, with his 2008 future up in the air.

In contrast, Tampa starter Scott Kazmir was nothing short of overpowering en route to his 13th victory.

Kazmir's 11 strikeouts give him 220 for the season, tied with Minnesota's Johan Santana for second in the American League. They are one behind Baltimore's Erik Bedard, but because Bedard is out for the season with a strained rib-cage muscle, Kazmir and Santana are fighting it out for the whiff title. Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia is next at 198.

In six innings, Kazmir allowed just an unearned run in the fifth. The 23-year-old lefty now officially qualifies as a Mariners killer with a career 3-0 record and 1.53 ERA in six starts.

Ramirez, meanwhile, became the seventh starter in franchise history to not record an out, and the first since Bob Wells on May 22, 1995 (six batters faced).

The others to achieve this dubious milestone: Frank McCormack on May 3, 1977 (three batters faced), John Montague on June 30, 1979 (four batters faced), Bob Stoddard on June 7, 1983 (five batters faced), Mike Morgan on April 20, 1987 (six batters faced), and Rich DeLucia on July 5, 1992 (six batters faced).

Campillo was immediately greeted with a bloop, two-run single into right by Delmon Young, the budding star who turned 22 Friday. The Rays' final run in the inning came after a double play on a single by Jonny Gomes.

"You can't get behind 5-0 every day," said McLaren. "You just can't do it. Kazmir is a special pitcher. You can see why he's one of the young up-and-coming pitchers in the game."

The Mariners got one more run when Raul Ibanez led off the ninth with a homer, but this time Tampa Bay's beleaguered bullpen held on to hand Seattle a crippling defeat.

For Tampa Bay, Carl Crawford, returning after serving a two-game MLB suspension, had four singles.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists