Mariners go down meekly to Jays

TORONTO — Onetime Mariners reject Brad Wilkerson going deep in the fifth inning was the first sign things would turn out badly for Seattle.

The next indicator came a half-inning later when Jose Lopez went down swinging with the tying run at third and only one out. Lopez whiffs in key situations about as often as Wilkerson hits the ball beyond an outfielder's reach, so the two unlikely events coming together created the perfect storm to rain on the Mariners' parade.

Throw in a Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher still hitting 99 mph on the radar gun in the ninth inning and the directions to the Mariners' 3-1 defeat Tuesday night were mapped out in just 2 hours, 2 minutes. Dustin McGowan handcuffed the Mariners on just five hits in a complete-game masterpiece that again leaves Seattle hitters scratching their heads over what comes next.

"When he's throwing a slider at 92, it's looking like a fastball," Lopez said of the 0-2 pitch he swung at and missed, "and then it starts to break."

Lopez had struck out only three times in 52 prior at-bats with a runner in scoring position this season. He'd never struck out in the 17 times he'd been up with a runner at third base.

After an ensuing walk to Jeremy Reed, Richie Sexson flied out to right field to end what would be Seattle's final good chance. The Mariners, for the second straight night, had no hits after the sixth inning as McGowan retired the final 10 batters in a row, to the delight of 36,170 fans at the Rogers Center.

McGowan's 125-pitch performance overshadowed a strong outing by Mariners starter Carlos Silva. Seattle's free-agent acquisition this past winter, now winless in his last 10 outings, yielded solo homers to Vernon Wells in the second inning and Wilkerson in the fifth but was otherwise the ground-ball machine he's supposed to be.

Reed hit a game-tying solo homer for the Mariners in the fifth inning. But then Wilkerson, the guy whose right-field spot in Seattle is now manned by Reed, took Silva over the center-field wall in the bottom of the inning to put Toronto ahead to stay.

It was the third home run for Wilkerson since the Mariners let him go at the end of April because of his lack of power. His Toronto numbers haven't been much better. Wilkerson entered the night hitting only .235 with a .658 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.

But he did take some satisfaction out of beating the club that released him after a month.

"A little bit, I'm not going to lie," he said. "I'll continue to come out and perform against this team. I'm just coming out here and trying to not let emotions get in the way of winning ballgames."

Silva could have used some help in the sixth, trailing 2-1. A Matt Stairs liner shot over Reed's head in right field for a double. The next batter, Scott Rolen, hit a grounder to the right side that got past a diving Lopez and into right field for a single.

Stairs came around to score as Silva, his frustration evident, cut Reed's throw off just feet away from catcher Jamie Burke.

Silva, winless since April 17, didn't want to talk about the two home runs or the things that didn't go Seattle's way. In the end, he said, he threw seven innings of three-run ball, mostly because he'd been able to loosen up and relax earlier by throwing before the game in the bullpen.

"Every time that I squeeze the ball, my sinker doesn't move," Silva said. "So every time I stay relaxed with my body and my hand, I get good movement."

Silva added that he felt more comfortable with his pitches as the game wore on. That was about his only comfort as the innings flew by and the scoreboard stayed the same.

"It's hard because when you don't win, you don't feel like you did the job," he said. "The only thing I've got in my mind is that we lost again."

Mariners manager John McLaren has seen his team score only four runs in two games — and just two the past 18 innings — since hitting coach Jeff Pentland was fired and replaced by Lee Elia. McLaren tipped his cap to both starting pitchers, conceding that Silva made only "a couple of mistakes" more than McGowan

"We've had a tough time in this series with runners in scoring position," McLaren said. "It's been a tough go for us. We know we need to do a better job."

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