M's hitters, on notice, ignite with late spark

CLEVELAND — Moments after a rare two-double game, an embattled Jose Vidro had a shotgun in-hand in the clubhouse and was letting loose on everything in sight.

That the pump-action weapon was only plastic, mind you, and attached to an arcade-style video game, Big Buck Hunter, set up for players to enjoy. Vidro's unfortunate targets were a herd of cyber-deer, tattooed point-blank much the way the Mariners designated hitter had drilled a pair of offerings from Cleveland Indians starter Fausto Carmona for extra-base hits he'll need far more of.

Changes are coming for the Mariners, even after a 7-2 win on Tuesday night sparked by a five-run ninth inning long overdue for this club. Vidro is one of a handful of players fighting to keep his everyday job with the team now that the arrival of Class AAA sluggers Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien seems imminent.

"It's been the first month of the season and guys take time to get warmed up," said Adrian Beltre, whose tiebreaking three-run homer in the ninth off reliever Rafael Betancourt was the difference in the game.

But the warmup is over. The Mariners served notice to their struggling hitters that they've had their chance and will be replaced if things don't pick up.

It's unclear whether this victory, in front of only 13,827 on a chilly, damp night at Progressive Field, will stave off the changes very long. The Mariners had only two runs — one earned — heading into the ninth inning. Although Vidro and Brad Wilkerson showed improvement, the latter notching three singles, other holes remained.

Clement and Balentien were held out of the lineup in AAA Tacoma's game Tuesday night. Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi, with the team on this trip, said after the game here that both players were healthy and gave no other reason why they would be kept out of action.

Bavasi also declined to say whether the players were held out so they could join the Mariners on this trip.

But Mariners manager John McLaren kept dropping hints, even postgame, about management and being "impatient" with the lack of progress. McLaren was asked about the dismal offensive output before the ninth, which almost cost the team a loss on yet another night that a starter, this time Carlos Silva, had a strong performance of seven-plus innings.

"I'm not singling anybody out," McLaren said. "I'm just saying we need to pick it up. Because we've got some guys struggling, and like I said, we've given them a month and there are options. We know that there are options and we're not afraid to go to those options if we have to."

The only thing that allowed the Mariners to maintain a 2-1 lead, after Vidro doubled home runs in the third and fifth, was Silva. He'd yielded a first-inning run and then retired 14 of the next 16 batters.

Silva made it through seven innings on only 92 pitches, employing an inside fastball and an improving changeup to keep Cleveland's lefty-laden sluggers off balance. But he walked lefty-hitting Grady Sizemore, who'd doubled and scored in the first inning, to start the eighth.

David Dellucci promptly singled to right to put runners at the corners with none out. McLaren went to southpaw reliever Arthur Rhodes from there and saw him give up the tying run on a Travis Hafner ground out to the right side.

But Rhodes then got Victor Martinez to pop out and eventual winning pitcher Mark Lowe came on to strike out Jhonny Peralta and end the threat. While their work wasn't enough to earn Silva the win, preventing the lead run from scoring with the heart of Cleveland's order up was likely the night's turning point.

"The only thing that matters here is not the winning pitcher," Silva said. "It's getting the W. You watch that last game against the A's and nobody could have pitched better than Felix [Hernandez] did and we lost."

That Hernandez and Silva had to pitch so well in back-to-back games just to give their teams a shot will likely accelerate the coming changes. Beltre knows firsthand about slow April starts, despite a batting average that now sits at .309 with an April on-base-plus-slugging percentage at a team-high .962 after his decisive homer.

"I don't think there's anybody in the big leagues who has struggled as much as me," Beltre said of past April swoons. "So, if they have that answer, tell me."

The Mariners don't have the answers yet, either. But they're looking in a serious way.