Notebook | M's starter Miguel Batista's pitches missing targets

BOSTON — Some cynics might suggest it's time for Mariners pitcher Miguel Batista to convert to a knuckleball to save his fading season.

Others would counter that his pitches miss their target so often, he's already using one. Whatever the reason, Batista on Saturday was back in the familiar jam of being unable to figure out where his pitches are going to wind up.

It's a command problem he thought he'd been on the verge of turning around once some early-season hurts began healing. But six more walks on Saturday, only one of them intentional, had his pitch count soaring and his day ending long before he intended.

"That was the big problem with the game," said Batista, winless in his last five starts against Boston dating to 2004. "I struggled with my command."

Batista has walked three or more batters in eight of his last nine outings.

And when he wasn't missing the strike zone, the Boston Red Sox were pounding his pitches. Manny Ramirez did just that in the first inning when Batista challenged him with a runner on third.

"I just missed on the other side of the plate, that's what happened," Batista said of a ball Ramirez obliterated on to the street beyond the Green Monster in left field. "It was supposed to be on the other side of the plate."

Batista's one truly strong start over the past month came 12 days ago, when he held the Red Sox to two runs over seven innings. He walked three batters in that game, but was spotting his fastball where he wanted and got deeper into a contest than he had in weeks.

That command wasn't as evident last weekend, when he walked four and lasted only 5-1/3 innings in a no-decision against Detroit. Fast forward to Saturday, when his pitch count was already up to 85 by the fifth inning.

Batista says he feels healthier than he did last month. The groin that gave him all kinds of trouble a few weeks ago is no longer bothering him.

But he'll now have to try to figure out whether it's health or mechanics that is messing up his pitches.

"It depends," he said. "When you fight your command because something mechanically is wrong, it takes a couple of bullpens to do better," he said. "But when it's a health issue, it's different. Because usually what you try to do is you compensate so you don't feel the pain in a certain spot."

A pitcher who has exceeded 5-1/3 innings only twice in his last eight starts now has to hope he'll keep getting used every five days with a chance to improve.

Notes

• Mariners third base coach Sam Perlozzo has been reliving a bit of a nightmare he hoped he wouldn't see this soon again. Perlozzo was fired last season as manager of the Baltimore Orioles and now is coaching a Mariners squad that has dropped five of six and 26 of 35 to own the worst record in the major leagues.

Perlozzo knows the manager's chair can be "a lonely office" and has tried to give John McLaren daily support as he attempts to pull the team out of its tailspin.

"These are tough times, there's no question about that," Perlozzo said. "I've been there. It's a lonely office when things are going bad. I do my best to try to go in after a game and sit down. ...

"I've made it a point to go in and say, 'Look, I think you did everything right in that game. You couldn't do anything more than you did and it just didn't work.' "

• McLaren said before Saturday's game that he thinks second baseman Jose Lopez is deserving of his second all-star nomination. Lopez leads the team with a .304 batting average and sits second with 32 runs batted in.

"I think he's got confidence, and I think he's having fun," McLaren said. He's a talent with the bat."

While McLaren added that Lopez "makes a routine play very, very well" in the field, he feels the one area in need of improvement is his all-around game at second base.

"He's a willing worker," McLaren said. "When you have shortcomings and you work at it, that's the only way you'll get better. And he's doing that."

• Manny Ramirez's home run in the first inning was the 504th of his career, tying him with Eddie Murray for 23rd on the all-time list.

• Ichiro's bunt single in the third inning was the first of the season for Seattle, the last team in the majors to record one.

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

For the record

Streak: L1

Home: 14-18

Road: 8-22

vs. AL West: 10-14

vs. L.A.: 3-6

vs. Oakland: 3-2

vs. Texas: 4-6

vs. AL East: 6-15

vs. AL Cent.: 4-10

vs. NL: 2-1

vs. LHP: 4-12

vs. RHP: 18-28

Day: 7-13

Night: 15-27

One-run: 5-12

Extra innings: 2-2