M's Notebook | Ramirez is out of starting rotation

One day after he failed to get an out against the Devil Rays, left-hander Horacio Ramirez is out of the Mariners' rotation.

"Maybe he needs to take a step back, take a deep breath," Mariners manager John McLaren said before Sunday's game. "The Yankees did it with [Mike] Mussina. Maybe we need to do it with him."

McLaren declined to name a replacement, but the leading candidates would seem to be Ryan Feierabend or Jorge Campillo. Feierabend has started seven games for the Mariners this season; Campillo started 22 games for Class AAA Tacoma.

The Mariners also could go with Brandon Morrow or Ryan Rowland-Smith, relievers that they plan to convert to starters in the future. Ramirez's spot will likely have three more starts. The Mariners will also need a starter for the second game of a doubleheader against Cleveland on Sept. 26.

"I'm sure we'll find [a replacement], but the best thing for us is to have Ramirez get into a good groove and pitch like he's supposed to pitch," pitching coach Rafael Chaves said.

Depending on whether the team brings Ramirez back next year — the Mariners have until Dec. 12 to decide whether to tender him a 2008 contract — Ramirez may have made his last start in a Seattle uniform.

Acquired from Atlanta in a December trade for reliever Rafael Soriano, Ramirez is 8-7 with a 7.16 earned-run average in 20 starts. In his last two appearances, he has worked a combined 1-2/3 innings, giving up seven hits and nine runs.

On Saturday, in an eventual 6-2 Mariners' loss, McLaren replaced Ramirez with Campillo after just four batters.

"The reason I got Campillo up so early is because he's a starting pitcher and takes a longer time to get ready," McLaren said. Of Ramirez, McLaren said, "I just didn't see the stuff I wanted to see. I felt it was time to make the move.

"I respect Horacio. I know it's not a good feeling to see someone warming up after only two hitters. But I had to do that to get Campillo ready. The more I saw, I felt we had to make a move."

Chaves said he still thinks that Ramirez, who was 30-22 with Atlanta, can be a successful pitcher in the majors.

"Absolutely, because he's done it before," Chaves said. "I have no doubt the effort is there, the desire is there. It just hasn't happened for him. He's not the first guy to have those type of problems.

"Hopefully, he'll learn from it and bounce back and become a stronger, better person, not as an individual outside the game, but inside the game."

Notes

• 1B Richie Sexson has now missed 14 of the past 15 games with tendinitis in his left hamstring. McLaren is not sure whether he will play again this season, though Sexson would like to play during the final week.

"He's had a rough year," McLaren said. "We certainly don't want him to rush back and reinjure himself. He has nothing to prove there. The main thing for him to do is get in good shape in the offseason, come out next year and put this year behind him."

Sexson, who has one year remaining on his four-year, $50 million contract, is hitting .205 in 121 games with 21 homers and 63 runs batted in.

• Ichiro, caught stealing in the fourth after a Tampa Bay pitchout, has just one stolen base since Aug. 22 and has been caught four times in that span.

• Tampa Bay's All-Star OF, Carl Crawford, strained his left groin running out a ball in ninth and will be reevaluated Monday.

• OF Charlton Jimerson, in just his second at-bat since being recalled from Tacoma by the Mariners on Sept. 1, hit a towering home run in the ninth off Rays' reliever Jon Switzer. He had a homer last year with Houston.

"You just try to see if you feel comfortable after the first pitch, or first swing, and go from there," said Jimerson. "It's tough. A lot of us guys who were called up haven't had an at-bat since the game in New York," he said, referring to the 12-3 Seattle loss Sept. 4 at Yankee Stadium.

Jimerson singled in that game and has had an occasional pinch-running stint since then.

"I'm just supporting the guys who have been here all year," he said. "That's fun enough for me."

For the record

Streak: L2

Home: 44-31

Road: 34-39

vs. AL West: 23-24

vs. L.A.: 4-11

vs. Oakland: 11-5

vs. Texas: 8-8

vs. AL East: 24-20

vs. AL Cent.: 21-18

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 24-11

vs. RHP: 54-59

Day: 21-21

Night: 57-48

One-run: 23-19

Extra innings: 5-1

Home attendance

Sunday's crowd: 36,234

Season total: 2,512,716

Biggest crowd: 46,377 (Aug. 5)

Smallest crowd: 16,555 (May 2)

Average (75 dates): 33,503

2006 average (75 dates): 31,131