M's go down with a fight in 5-0 loss to Texas

A week's worth of frustration exploded in Richie Sexson's brain as a fourth-inning pitch came at him at face level.

Within seconds, Sexson was notching the biggest hit his Mariners would achieve Thursday night. Unfortunately for the team, it only came via a direct hit off Texas Rangers pitcher Kason Gabbard with a thrown batting helmet after Sexson charged the mound and ignited a dugout-clearing fracas.

No one was seriously hurt. The game soon continued, and the Mariners resumed their losing ways, taking a 5-0 defeat in a game that saw them notch only four hits and run their frustration level to the breaking point.

"It's a rage," Sexson said of his state of mind in charging the mound. "If that ball hits me in the face, what are we talking about here? Who knows what that could have led to?"

What it ultimately led to this time was Sexson hitting a ducking Gabbard with his helmet, which he'd ripped off about halfway to the pitcher's mound. Rangers catcher Gerald Laird, who was drilled earlier in the game by Felix Hernandez, tackled Sexson from behind and they both toppled over Gabbard.

After several minutes of pushing, shoving and mostly shouting, between the teams, the players were separated. The crowd of 22,922 at Safeco Field treated the Mariners to their loudest ovation all week, then watched the offense vanish yet again as the club ran its scoreless innings steak to 23.

The bad blood began building after Hernandez, trailing 2-0 after the first inning, hit Laird on the forearm to start the second. Two batters later, Ian Kinsler lined a ball over the left-field wall to make it 4-0 and set the stage for what happened later.

"Felix had difficulty the first two innings," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "He threw a lot of pitches. First hitter of the game, he was throwing 96. It looked like it was going to happen, but it just didn't happen."

Kinsler came up again in the fourth and was hit by an inside pitch from Hernandez, though he did little to turn out of the way. As Kinsler walked up the first-base line, he had words with catcher Kenji Johjima and stared menacingly at Hernandez.

In the bottom of the inning, after two quick outs, Sexson expected some retaliation.

"I understand the situation," he said. "There's a right and a wrong way to play the game. Hit me below the shoulders, and I'm fine with that. You get up near the face and that's when you start talking about careers and you start talking about family."

The pitch from Gabbard was near eye level. Sexson initially ducked out of the way, though the ball wound up crossing closer to the center of the plate.

Sexson nevertheless made a beeline for Gabbard.

"I'm 6-8, what are we talking about here?" Sexson said. "He's a guy who can hit corners at will. All of a sudden, he's up near my face?"

Laird was initially slow to react in defending his pitcher.

"I was a little bit surprised," he said. "I didn't think the ball was that close."

Sexson wound up beneath several players and was pulled to safety by Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre.

"Nothing good can happen when you get caught at the bottom of a pile like that," Ibanez said.

Off in another corner, a gesturing, shouting Hernandez was being pulled away by teammates as he and Laird jawed at each other and nearly ignited a second fight.

Laird wound up picked up and carried away from the melee by teammate Milton Bradley.

"I'm not saying he did anything on purpose tonight," Laird said of Hernandez hitting the two batters. "The overall look was just bad."

Hernandez, who needed 109 pitches to make it through five innings, did not talk to reporters. Gabbard refused to comment on the matter, though he wound up leaving the game two batters later with what the Rangers described as "bruised legs" from the fight.

Sexson admitted that throwing the helmet was wrong. He'd missed Wednesday's game tending to his sick son in the hospital, and admitted the stress of that and his team's offensive spiral likely contributed to his rage.

"I'm sure it all came to a head right there," he said. "It's no secret we haven't scored a lot of runs for a while. It's no secret we haven't lived up to our potential."

That's putting it mildly. The Mariners have lost eight of nine, own the American League's worst record at 14-22, trail their division leaders by eight games and have scored just once in the last 32 innings.

"I've never seen it this bad before," Sexson admitted.

And with Seattle's two best starting pitchers now used up on this homestand, it could get a whole lot worse.

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