Mariners begin search for pop with new kids

CLEVELAND — The hunt was on after another dismal offensive showing to find the next Mariners veteran about to lose playing time.

Jose Vidro was sitting on a clubhouse couch unwinding with teammates after their tough night Wednesday, his Mariners having absorbed an 8-3 pounding at the hands of the Cleveland Indians.

Long reliever Cha Seung Baek was in the training room, his shoulder getting iced after the Indians had used him for batting practice in a five-run fifth inning that put this one away.

But manager John McLaren wasn't interested in them, nor Richie Sexson, who emerged from a back room and headed for his locker. It was catcher Kenji Johjima being sought out this time. The manager finally found him in a downstairs weight room, pumping iron and trying to figure out what's gone wrong with his bat.

Johjima, batting .177, was told he'll sit out the next two games as a mental break while Class AAA product Jeff Clement, recalled with right fielder Wladimir Balentien earlier in the day, takes his place behind the plate.

"He told me to relax, but it's not easy to relax," said Johjima, locked in a 3-for-23 death spiral at the plate. "Because even if I do relax, I don't know how good of a performance I can come up with. I can't be happy. Just because I'm taking two days off, that's not to say I'm going to do better on the third day. I can't allow myself to think that way."

But McLaren figures Johjima is thinking too much.

"He's fighting himself so bad right now," McLaren said.

As have the rest of the Mariners during a 13-15 start this season, capped by Wednesday's loss in front of 15,279 at Progressive Field. They'd hoped to grab an early lead in the American League West, but instead trail by 4 ½ games and sit in third place.

The team responded Wednesday by sending Brad Wilkerson, his .304 slugging percentage and $3 million contract packing, along with veteran Greg Norton.

The injection of power from the bats of Balentien and Clement should boost a team that has failed to score more than four runs 17 times this season. Seattle is 4-13 in those games and 0-11 in contests it trails by two or more runs at any point.

Balentien provided the night's lone bright spot, slugging a three-run homer over the right-field wall off dominant Indians left-hander Cliff Lee in the seventh. Lee had given up only one other run all season to that point, becoming the first Indians pitcher since 1981 to run off 27 consecutive scoreless innings.

"I knew I hit it well," Balentien said. "At least, I felt I might get a double. But it kept going."

McLaren said right-handed hitter Balentien's power stroke to right should benefit him at Safeco Field.

"I can hit to all fields," Balentien said. "I don't have a favorite part of the field to hit to."

But the blast, uplifting as it was for Balentien, came with the Mariners trailing 8-0. Any shot at making this one competitive was long gone, with Vidro striking out on a first-inning pitch over his head with two on and Ichiro popping out with two more on in the fifth.

Jarrod Washburn seemed to have recovered from a rough first inning, in which he'd yielded a leadoff homer to Grady Sizemore and consecutive singles that led to a 2-0 deficit. Washburn retired nine in a row at one point — going on to fan seven hitters total — but an Adrian Beltre throwing error in the fourth helped do him in.

After a leadoff walk, Washburn got Casey Blake to hit a near-certain double-play ball to Beltre. But the third baseman threw it away at second base, leaving runners at the corners with none out.

Washburn yielded an ensuing single to Franklin Gutierrez that made it 3-0 and helped run the lefty's pitch count up to 84 before the inning ended.

Cleveland blew it open off Washburn in the fifth, with a one-out, Victor Martinez double to left scoring Sizemore to make it 4-0. Washburn then hit Ryan Garko with his 102nd and final pitch to bring on Baek, who'd looked so good in tossing six innings of relief against Oakland on Friday.

Not this time, though. Baek served up a double to Blake to bring a run home, then a single to Gutierrez on an 0-2 offering that scored two more. Baek later allowed a double to Kelly Shoppach on a 1-2 pitch, the two-strike hits earning the wrath of McLaren afterward.

"We've done this too many times this year, and it just can't happen," the manager said. "It's something we're going to address with the pitchers."

Just one more notice served in a week that's already seen plenty.

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