Notebook | Raul Ibanez has three hits for Mariners, but offense still is struggling

BALTIMORE — His first home run and multihit game of the season were of little solace to Raul Ibanez after his team's stunning defeat.

Ibanez dressed quietly in a near-empty clubhouse after Seattle's 3-2 loss to Baltimore on Sunday, pausing briefly to discuss his team's offensive woes. The Mariners have scored four runs or fewer in all but one of their first six games, and the middle of the order is floundering.

Like everyone else associated with the club, Ibanez refuses to hit the panic button just six games into a 162-game season. But he also knows the hits have to start coming soon for a club off to a surprising 2-4 start.

"It kind of goes both ways," he said. "One side of it, you want to think, 'OK, it's early.' You want to rationalize it that way. And the other side of it is, nobody in this locker room, I guarantee you, is thinking in their minds, 'Oh, it's just early. Don't worry about it.' As a professional and as a big-league player, you know approach is most important, and then the results.

"I think that we're going to hit. Actually, I know this team's going to hit."

Ibanez was just 3 for 18 coming into the game, but singled to center off O's starter Jeremy Guthrie in his first at-bat. He grounded into a double play in the third, but led off the sixth inning with a homer to right field on an 0-2 count.

His three-hit day was capped with a single up the middle in the eighth.

Ibanez's homer loomed large as the Mariners clung to a 2-0 lead in the ninth after struggling to put Guthrie away. After throwing 32 pitches in the first inning, the second-year right-hander still made it through seven frames — attacking the strike zone more aggressively in hopes of quicker outs.

Another struggling hitter, Richie Sexson, doubled home the first run of the game and went 1 for 2 with two walks. He's still hitting just .200 on the season, though his slugging has come around this series.

Brad Wilkerson went 0 for 3 with a walk and was thrown out at second on a botched hit-and-run play in the fourth. Wilkerson is batting .067.

Ibanez cautioned again that it's still too early to make any definitive calls on hitters, no matter how bad some have looked early on. There is merit to that suggestion, given how Ibanez in one day lifted his batting average from .167 to .273.

"We work to get it done right away," he said. "Nobody wants to wait six games, 10, 20. But at the same time, it is early and you have to try to deflate the air in the balloon. Try to relax a little bit and say, 'OK, let's get it done.' "

Bedard is a no-go

One of the first things Erik Bedard did on Sunday was tell his manager he was good to go.

Unfortunately for Bedard, John McLaren was having none of it. Bedard had already complained of a mildly inflamed hip the day before, and McLaren wasn't going to risk having him start and losing him to a more severe injury.

Instead, he had Bedard throw a bullpen session with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre before the game. Bedard reported no pain and remains scheduled to start on Tuesday at Tampa Bay.

"We just wanted to make sure the ball was coming out of his hand free and easy," Stottlemyre said. "His normal bullpen session is usually about eight minutes and this one was for six minutes, so that's pretty much a normal day for him."

Carlos Silva gets the nod today, denying Bedard the chance to throw in front of his former Baltimore fans in the only series Seattle plays at Camden Yards this season. But Bedard throwing a bullpen session on Sunday meant his arm would not have been recovered enough to pitch today's series finale.

Silva is pitching on his normal four days' rest, as did Felix Hernandez on Sunday. The biggest drawback to the reshuffling is that the team will now send back-to-back left-handers to the mound Tuesday and Wednesday against Tampa Bay, with Jarrod Washburn set to follow Bedard to the hill on Wednesday.

Washburn struggled last season on days when he pitched right after a start by left-hander Horacio Ramirez. Splitting up the lefties was one of the major reasons Washburn was slotted fourth in Seattle's rotation instead of fifth.

McLaren said he'll try to split the lefties back up again as soon as the schedule or opposing matchup allows it.

Notes

• Seattle has two blown saves in games it led heading into the ninth inning, with Sunday's defeat coming on the heels of J.J. Putz giving up a late homer last Tuesday night against Texas. Last season, the Mariners were 75-0 in games they led after eight innings.

• Sexson had his first multi-walk contest of the season. Sexson has drawn at least one walk in four of his first six games. Last year, he didn't draw a single walk until his seventh game.

• The Mariners had scored 12 straight runs via home runs before Sexson doubled into the left-field corner in the third inning. Raul Ibanez later hit a solo homer in the sixth, giving Seattle 13 of its last 14 runs via the long ball.

For the record

Streak: L3

Home: 2-1

Road: 0-3

vs. AL West: 2-1

vs. L.A.: 0-0

vs. Oakland: 0-0

vs. Texas: 2-1

vs. AL East: 0-3

vs. AL Central: 0-0

vs. NL: 0-0

vs. LHP: 0-1

vs. RHP: 2-3

Day: 1-1

Night: 1-3

One-run: 0-2

Extra innings: 0-0