Carlos Silva pitches better but M's shut out by Royals

KANSAS CITY — Carlos Silva turned in his best performance in two months, and it wasn't nearly good enough to halt the Mariners' losing streak.

Silva needed to be close to perfect Monday evening against the Royals to break into the win column for the first time since June 28.

Instead, the Royals slapped seven singles and a double against Silva in 5-1/3 innings at Kauffman Stadium. It added up to just two runs.

But two runs were too many as the Mariners lost for the fifth straight time, falling 3-0.

"He hasn't pitched in a long time, and he kept us in the game, threw strikes and worked fast," left fielder Raul Ibanez said. "He did a great job. We just didn't score for him."

Although Silva declined to talk after the game, he has to be encouraged by his first start in two weeks. In Silva's last game he gave up 10 hits and six runs in 4-2/3 innings against Texas on Sept. 1.

"He hasn't been pitching lately because he's been hurt. It's hard to compare," catcher Kenji Johjima said through an interpreter. "But his sinker had great movement today. He needs that to be effective in this game."

Silva's effort Monday night still fell short of the type of dominating outing the Mariners were counting on when they signed him to a four-year, $48 million contract.

It looked like money well spent the first three weeks of the season. Silva won three of his first four starts and stood at 3-0 on April 17. Since that time, he's 1-15, and the lone victory came against San Diego, which is in a three-way battle with Seattle and Washington for the worst record in baseball.

Silva battled through a tough first inning. He gave up three hits, and the first run the Royals scored came on a wild pitch.

It could have been worse.

The Royals were denied a second run because Ryan Shealy missed third base on a two-out single by Mark Teahen. Shealy slid safely across home plate, but the Mariners appealed and third base umpire Brian Knight ruled in favor of Seattle.

The break seemed to energize Silva. He retired the next six batters he faced. Silva, though, gave up three straight hits to start the fourth and that led to the Royals' second run.

"He's still throwing the same velocity. He still has a good changeup," said Teahen, who had three hits against Silva. "It could just be a change of scenery in going from Minnesota to Seattle. I don't know. But his numbers definitely are not what they usually are."

The main problem for the Mariners on Monday night was their inability to get on base against Royals starter Kyle Davies. They didn't have a base runner in the first four innings.

A lead off single by Jose Lopez in the top of the fifth ended a string of 12 straight Mariners retired by Davies.

"He really pitched a good ballgame," Seattle manager Jim Riggleman said. "He had a good breaking ball, locating his fastball. He's got a good arm. He had it all working.

"Generally, good pitching will beat good hitting, and he beat us."

The Mariners' only legitimate scoring opportunity came in the sixth when Ichiro got a one-out single and Johjima was able to move from first to third on a throwing error by David DeJesus.

Yuniesky Betancourt grounded into a double play to end the threat.

For most of the game, the Mariners made Davies look like he was the $12 million pitcher. Davies equaled a career high in strikeouts with eight. He allowed just four singles in eight innings.

"The guy I saw tonight had good stuff, located his fastball and had some good complementary pitches to go with it," Ibanez said. "We faced him one other time and he has good stuff."

Ibanez ends streak

of reaching base

Ibanez ended his 32-game streak of reaching base; he said he wasn't aware of the career-high streak.

"I'm not thinking about that," he said. "I'm thinking about winning the game. That's the only thing that matters."

Davies handled Ibanez pretty easily, getting him to pop out to short, ground out to second and strike out.

Ibanez's streak was the second longest in baseball this season. The longest is 38 by Atlanta's Chipper Jones.

Notes

• Ichiro singled in the sixth inning and needs four more hits to reach 200 for the eighth straight season, which would tie a major-league record.

• The Mariners added to their coaching staff by calling up minor-league coaches Jamie Navarro and Alonzo Powell. Navarro was the pitching coach for Class A Wisconsin and Powell was the hitting coach for Class AAA Tacoma.

For the record

Streak: L5

Home: 31-43

Road: 26-49

vs. AL West: 18-29

vs. L.A.: 4-11

vs. Oakland: 6-7

vs. Texas: 8-11

vs. AL East: 15-29

vs. AL Cent.: 15-25

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 19-29

vs. RHP: 38-63

Day: 18-31

Night: 39-61

One-run: 17-27

Extra inn.: 5-7