Mariners lose 7-4 to Baltimore with pitchers struggling

BALTIMORE — The sight of former Mariners reliever George Sherrill closing things out against his onetime club seemed fitting on a night when just about everything else went wrong.

It wasn't so much Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn throwing more pitches in the first two innings of Friday's 7-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles than Felix Hernandez did through his opening five frames the other night. Nor a pack of struggling hitters failing to make contact most of the way and then seeing Brad Wilkerson thrown out on a straight steal attempt to cap a strikeout-and-throw-out double play with Seattle down by two in the seventh.

No, it was more the bullpen and how it turned a one-run game into a five-run deficit in the latter innings. A relief crew already hard-pressed without injured J.J. Putz could have used Sherrill on a night it got knocked around and even had a run score on an inning-ending strikeout because of a wild pitch.

"The mind-set's so much different because we don't have guys in those roles," manager John McLaren said after the defeat, in front of 14,429 fans at Camden Yards, evened his club's record at 2-2. "Usually, in that situation you think about [Sean] Green, but he has to go back [further in the bullpen]. If you go to him too early, you're going to need him [later]. And if you need him, you don't have him."

The injury to Putz has McLaren scrambling to find arms that can handle the sixth and even the seventh innings, with Green and others needed to fill the void later on.

"I think when your big boy goes out, it's got more of an impact," McLaren said of Putz. "I don't know if one guy can replace him, to be honest with you."

McLaren later hinted that his team's experiment with an 11-man pitching staff might soon be over. Not as quickly as tonight's game, but soon.

"It's something we're going to have to talk about," he said. "We have talked about it."

Cha Seung Baek wasn't the answer this time, giving up a solo homer to Ramon Hernandez after replacing Washburn to start the sixth with Seattle down 3-2. Baek then issued a walk and a two-run homer to left by Melvin Mora in the seventh to put his scuffling offense in a hole it couldn't climb out of.

Kevin Millar also homered for the Orioles, a popgun shot over the 333-foot sign in left in Washburn's fifth and final inning to snap a 2-2 tie. The Mariners had a pair of two-run blasts, one by Adrian Beltre in the fourth off O's starter Steve Trachsel and another by Richie Sexson in the ninth.

Sexson's first homer this season, off reliever Greg Aquino, helped get Sherrill into the game, where he notched his second save in as many tries as Baltimore's new closer.

Mariners lefty Ryan Rowland-Smith threw only six pitches in the seventh but yielded a single to Millar and a double to Aubrey Huff. Newly recalled pitcher Roy Corcoran entered from there and nearly got out of the jam on a pop out and a Hernandez strikeout.

But the ball bounced away from catcher Kenji Johjima, allowing Hernandez to reach first and the runner on third to score and make it 7-2.

"It was a changeup, and I thought it fooled him pretty good," Corcoran said of Hernandez. "But I think the ball bounced off the plate. It would have been tough for anybody to catch that."

Seattle was done at that point, having mustered just four hits by the ninth inning, allowing the slow-working Trachsel to plod his way through 5-2/3 frames to pick up the victory.

Washburn had thrown 61 pitches in the first two innings, struggling to put hitters away with two strikes. No matter how many times he tried — and Washburn insists he was making good pitches — they kept fouling them off and running his pitch count up.

"You just keep trying to make a pitch and hope they put one in play," he said. "You can't just give in to them and try to put one over the plate."

Washburn finally did that, using only 12 pitches to get through the third and 17 more in the fourth. McLaren tried to ride him through the fifth, with two lefties among the first four hitters.

But one of the right-handed bats, Millar, poked a ball just beyond the wall in left with two out to put Baltimore ahead to stay. It was still just a one-run game at the time Washburn exited with a pitch count bulging at 103.

"I got five innings out of it," he said. "It was ugly, but when I came out of the game, we still had a chance to win."

A chance that proved ever so fleeting.

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