Notebook | Detroit ghosts come back to haunt Mariners

DETROIT — A solemn John McLaren sat in the visiting manager's office here reliving a nightmare he'd hoped was long behind him.

It was only nine months ago, in this city, that McLaren's team had lost its 13th game in 14 tries to fall out of playoff contention and get rumors swirling about his job security. Same city, same story, only a whole lot earlier in the season this time around as McLaren and his largely new coaching staff scrambles to find some answers.

"I know we haven't, the last month-plus, played three clean games in a row," McLaren said. "And, what I mean is, solid pitching, timely hitting and good defense. We've had breakdowns in one or two of those areas, sometimes all three. We just need to start playing clean games. We need to get everything going.

"I stay up late at night thinking about it. Why would we have breakdowns in a couple of areas, then the next day we break down in another area and those other [previous] areas are good? Winning baseball is about playing a complete game."

McLaren has remained steadfastly behind his players, on a team that has lost 16 of its past 21 games to become the American League's worst team. In a week that saw Kevin Towers, the San Diego Padres' general manager, rip into his team for its major-league worst performance, McLaren continues to insist his team is preparing hard and playing that way every time out.

He says he wouldn't be able to bear it if the opposite were true.

"It's pretty close to that now," he said. "Nobody likes to lose. If you do accept losing, I really do feel you're in the wrong field of work. This game is about competing, about being the best you can be. It's a team sport and losing should never be an option."

As McLaren spoke, many of his players were in the clubhouse benefiting from some extra rest, since the manager hadn't scheduled any batting practice before the day game. Some were still putting on their uniforms, having arrived on the later bus from the team hotel about two hours before game time.

The self-described players' manager continues to give his team every break he can in order to ease the mounting pressure and get them to loosen up. Even as those same players go out and lose almost every day.

McLaren says the search for answers is a daily grind.

"We're doing some things different," he said of the coaching staff. "We're having a staff meeting every day and trying to line our ducks up for where we need to go. It's something you talk about as a staff. What area you need to work on that day, what breakdown we had the night before. Sometimes it's sharing ideas, sometimes just venting. It's about getting everybody in the same room, putting all our minds together and just feeling each other out.

"We've gotten some positives out of it. But we're still looking for some answers."

McLaren has taken daily phone calls offering encouragement — from Lou Piniella, Larry Bowa, Don Zimmer and Tom Foley during this series alone. But words and talk only go so far.

"I look at it and I just don't understand," he said. "I really don't."

Little sleep

for knuckleballer

R.A. Dickey admitted to sleeping only four hours before heading out with the Mariners for his second stint this season. Part of that was his flight schedule, having arrived here just before 6 a.m. after catching a red-eye flight out of Seattle.

But the rest was plain adrenaline. It had been building since Wednesday afternoon when the Mariners decided, even before their game in Detroit that night, to designate Cha Seung Baek for assignment and recall knuckleballer Dickey from Class AAA Tacoma.

"It was a little bit of adrenaline, a little bit of excitement," he said. "So, yeah, I'm tired."

Dickey had been taking a nap with his children when Tacoma manager Daren Brown phoned to give him the news.

He used his time in the minors to make some key decisions on his knuckleball. He talked on the phone with Charlie Hough, former major-leaguer and coaching mentor, about pitching strategy. Dickey decided to settle on a "comfort zone" of about 74 or 75 mph with his knuckleball, then throw a slower or quicker one to change things up.

"Everything's going to work off a certain speed and being able to slow it down or speed it up off that speed," he said. "And I did that down there."

Dickey threw a hard knuckler that breaks sharp and late and tops out at 81 mph. The slower one dips to 61 mph and "can break three or four times" as it flutters to the plate.

The Mariners wasted little time giving Dickey some game action Thursday. He tossed the fourth and fifth innings, yielding a two-run homer to Matt Joyce in the fifth.

But the Mariners feel Dickey's versatility, as a starter or "rubber-armed" reliever, can benefit them more than Baek.

Notes

• The Mariners have scheduled a Dave Niehaus Day at Safeco Field for Sunday, Aug. 3, to honor the longtime play-by-play man for being inducted into the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Niehaus will receive the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 27. The team plans to honor Niehaus a week after that event with a bobblehead doll and a pregame, on-field ceremony.

• Ichiro extended his hitting streak to six games with a pair of singles. The second of those was a line drive off the right-field wall in seventh that was hit so hard and played so quickly by right fielder Magglio Ordonez that Ichiro had to stop at first base.

• Miguel Batista is still looking for his first victory at Comerica Park, now 0-3 with a 7.27 earned-run average in four career starts there.

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

For the record

Streak: L3

Home: 11-13

Road: 7-17

vs. AL West: 10-11

vs. L.A.: 3-3

vs. Oakland: 3-2

vs. Texas: 4-6

vs. AL East: 3-10

vs. AL Central: 3-8

vs. NL: 2-1

vs. LHP: 4-9

vs. RHP: 14-21

Day: 6-8

Night: 12-22

One-run: 3-9

Extra innings: 1-2