Dose of M's revives Tigers

DETROIT — Seattle's version of a traveling doctors unit rolled into the Motor City with a cure for all that ailed the local baseball team.

Got a struggling pitcher? Hey, the Mariners have just the thing. A quick dose of a Seattle offense that hit a first-inning home run, then went to sleep for the next five frames was more than enough to help Detroit Tigers starter Justin Verlander record just his second victory of the season.

Having a little trouble scoring some runs? No problem. Pop a couple of Mariners pitching and defense pills and the next thing you know, the Tigers are putting up a dozen runs en route to handing Seattle a 12-8 loss on Tuesday night that was far more embarrassing than the score.

After just one session with Seattle's brand of baseball healers, the Tigers, formerly the worst team in the American League, are now out of the basement. It's the Mariners now back in the AL cellar after possibly their worst all-around game of an already-dismal season.

"It's crazy," Mariners starter Carlos Silva said. "It was one of those days where, when you're going to get beat, you're going to get beat. It doesn't matter what you do. Nothing goes right."

The 39,463 fans at Comerica Park had waited all season to see their previously-hyped team lay this type of whipping on an opponent at home. The Tigers piled up four home runs and 17 hits total. They chased Silva after four innings, then made like a three-wood off a tee against Cha Seung Baek for two more frames.

And solved a whole bunch of smaller ailments in the process.

Edgar Renteria was hitting just .152 with one run batted in for the month of May. One Mariners visit later, he had a home run, a triple and two singles and tied his career high by driving in five.

Poor Curtis Granderson had gone 23 home runs without hitting any with a runner on base. That was Granderson's longest stretch of solo homers since May 9, 2007, until he pomptly cranked a two-run blast off Baek in the sixth.

Heard enough healing stories? Mariners manager John McLaren needs at least one more. The one about how his team, which trailed 11-1 in the seventh inning and is now 8-½ games out of the AL West division lead, is supposed to salvage this season.

"It was pretty obvious we didn't pitch very well tonight," McLaren initially said, before later adding that: "You've got to start having some offense before the seventh and eighth innings."

McLaren is nothing but honest. And these are the types of games — the ones that get managers fired — that may ensure he won't have to play frontman to this on-field vanishing act much longer.

When it wasn't the pitching by Silva and Baek, the guys with the gloves were once again getting all tangled up in their spikes. Seattle led 1-0 after an Adrian Beltre homer in the first when Jose Lopez let a Carlos Guillen grounder bounce past his glove for a generously-awarded, game-tying single to right field in second inning.

An ensuing Renteria single later put the Tigers ahead to stay. But the crusher came in a five-run fourth inning by Detroit, which saw Yuniesky Betancourt mistakenly cover second base on a hit-and-run play, only to see a grounder roll by him into left field near the spot he should have been.

"That's the first time that's happened," said Lopez, who'd also covered the bag after signaling to Betancourt that he would do so if the runner broke. "I don't know what happened."

What happened, according to Mariners infield coach Sam Perlozzo, was Lopez making the right call and Betancourt simply not following through.

Instead of a double-play, or a man on with one out, there were two on with none out. Silva later walked the bases loaded, then yielded a Renteria triple on a line drive that Ichiro let get by him.

"I was missing my spots," Silva said. "And when you miss your spots against that kind of lineup, what happened today is what's going to happen."

The carnage continued against Baek, who yielded six hits in two innings — including home runs to Magglio Ordonez, Renteria and Granderson. Seattle scored some late runs, including four in the ninth off a porous Tigers bullpen, but it was too late.

"We did have some good at-bats at the end," designated hitter Jose Vidro said. "But we were so far behind, it was tough for us to make it all the way back."

A metaphor of sorts for a team drifting to the point of obscurity in the AL West. And which, if these types of losses continue, will certainly have fewer familiar faces around at the finish than there were at the start.

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