Red Sox outlast M's to nail down sweep

They had nothing to do with Wednesday's loss.

Not according to the box score anyway.

Felix Hernandez, J.J. Putz and Brandon Morrow were all out of the game by the time Boston beat Seattle 6-3 in 12 innings at Safeco Field. Sean Green got the loss, Jonathan Papelbon the win and Seattle skidded toward Toronto on a five-game losing streak.

Just one more defeat in this rusted-out wreck of a season. Just one more game in which the Mariners (38-63) couldn't score enough runs and ended up swept out of town.

It's just that for 10 innings on this July afternoon, three Mariner pitchers showed something that has been so rare this season for Seattle: hope.

Stop laughing and start thinking about Hernandez, Putz and Morrow, a triangle of promise in the midst of another afternoon of disappointment.

The future is in their hands. No wait, that's not quite right. It's their arms that matter for the Mariners and their future and they showed that by holding the league's No. 2 scoring offense to nothing more serious than a single for 10 innings.

Unfortunately for Seattle, the game went 12 innings, and the Red Sox scored three times in their final at-bat off Green (2-3). Then, Seattle left the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning to finish their three-game series with Boston (60-43) with a total of five runs in 30 innings.

Now, it's possible to resort to the hand-wringing and verbal flagellation that has become oh-so familiar to this season. You could bemoan the ball that Willie Bloomquist flat-out missed in center field in the 12th, which resulted in a bases-loaded situation, or berate catcher Kenji Johjima for the inning-ending double play he hit into to end the 11th, leaving a runner on third.

Reciting the Mariners' inadequacies is getting repetitive, and eventually you just run out of adjectives.

"We played this Boston club real tough for these days to come away with nothing," manager Jim Riggleman said. "I'm not sure what the right word is."

Numbing. Redundant. Putrescent. All those things may apply to a Mariners season that has been joyless as an autopsy from about May on.

But in the midst of one more loss, pause for just one moment to think about Wednesday's pitchers and the implications for the future.

"We pitched good straight through the ballgame," Riggleman said. "Felix was somewhat his dominant self."

Hernandez pitched this season like the ace that Seattle expected Erik Bedard to be, although he hasn't always gotten the run support for his top-shelf efforts to translate into victories.

There were blemishes against Boston. He gave up two runs in the third, though only one was earned. Ichiro saved him from a three-run homer that inning, leaping to catch J.D. Drew's right-field drive about a foot and a half above the wall and then made an error that allowed two runs to score on an outfield single instead of just one.

Hernandez also walked in a run in the sixth, but that really could have been much worse. The bases were loaded with no outs, but he struck out a pair before walking one and getting the final out.

Hernandez was gone after Seattle tied it on Jose Vidro's two-run homer in the sixth. In came Putz, who's back off the disabled list and looking like the automatic closer he was one year ago and not the inconsistent reliever he was before going on the disabled list in June. He struck out three batters in two innings against Boston with a fastball that reached the mid-90s, and the only runner he allowed was thrown out trying to steal second base.

"Everything is starting to feel like it should," Putz said.

Morrow entered the game in the ninth and showed the explosive repertoire that has people in the Mariners franchise wondering whether he will end up in the starting rotation or remaining a dominant reliever. He struck out two batters, walked one and the only runner he allowed was erased on a double play.

Only two runners reached base for Boston from the seventh through the 10th, none advanced past second and for one afternoon, the Mariners didn't necessarily have to wrestle with questions over the future of pitchers like Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista or Bedard.

Even in the midst of another loss in this sunken season, it was possible to see promise out on the mound.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com