Mariners fall to A's, 5-3

OAKLAND, Calif. — It was going to take a part of their future to help the Mariners avoid a return to their dubious past.

The Mariners sent Brandon Morrow to the mound Sunday for his fourth major-league start, hoping he could derail what stood to become the second 0-11 road trip in franchise history. In a season punctuated by disappointment, futility and all-around embarrassment, the promise of better things to come is personified in the 98-mph fastball and devastating power curve thrown by their former No. 1 draft pick.

Morrow delivered beyond what was expected in carrying a one-hitter and three-run lead into the seventh inning. But a few too many walks and a bullpen now as porous as any in the league proved his undoing in a 5-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics that sealed Seattle's winless road trip.

"Any time you go 0-11 it's miserable," said Mariners left fielder Raul Ibanez, who was part of a 2006 squad that pulled off the same dubious feat. "I can't really compare [the streaks] because I've tried to block out the last one. It's as difficult a time as I've ever been through."

Ibanez had a particularly rough day, in front of 18,707 fans at the Coliseum, striking out a career-high tying four times and having to chase down two doubles ripped over his head and off the wall — enabling the A's to score three in the seventh and tie the game.

"Those balls were hit," Ibanez said, adding he had no chance of catching either. "They were rockets."

So was the ball Jack Cust hit off Miguel Batista for a two-run homer in the eighth inning that decided the game. Batista had already given up the game-tying double in the seventh, propelling Seattle's bullpen into the major-league lead with 31 blown saves.

Ibanez stared at the ground for several minutes when asked what his team, now at 98 losses with a week to go, has to do to win.

"Keep fighting and make it happen," he said. "It's a feeling. It's a mind-set that you're going to make it happen. And expecting to win when you go out there."

Instead, the Mariners played and managed the game like a team expecting to lose. Mariners manager Jim Riggleman seemed fearful of having a warmed-up Batista replace Morrow with one on, one out and power-hitting Daric Barton due up in the seventh.

A tiring Morrow was allowed to remain in the contest and promptly walked Barton on his 113th pitch. Morrow showed improved command at times, not allowing a hit until the sixth inning and carrying a one-hit shutout into the seventh.

But his five walks allowed proved costly.

"The walks hurt me a little bit in terms of pitch count and then at the end a bit there," he said.

Batista was finally brought into the game after the Barton walk and allowed the game-tying, two-run double by pinch-hitter Aaron Cunningham.

"It's a guessing game," Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said of the bullpen. "Everybody that we go to has trouble getting that first batter out."

The final month of any season for teams out of the playoff hunt is supposed to be about hope. Of playing youngsters who represent the future and seeing if their hungry attitudes can take other clubs by surprise down the stretch.

Not so with the Mariners, whose top young players appear overmatched at times in a lineup lacking enough proven presence to be much of a threat to any opponent. The Mariners have taken some solace in the fact that 10 of their 11 losses came in games decided by three runs or fewer.

But a loss is still a loss.

For every solid outing by a Morrow, or Felix Hernandez, or Ryan Rowland-Smith, a bullpen stinker has followed and offset anything positive.

As far as the offense goes, the Mariners spent the road trip wilting whenever they had a chance to drive in runs.

The Mariners averaged just 2.5 runs per game on the trip and have scored just 3.5 runs per contest during September. That's bad news for a team with just a 9-63 record overall when scoring four runs or fewer.

"It's just been a miserable road trip, really right through top to bottom," Riggleman said. "It can't get any worse."

That's not exactly true, because a 100-loss season is just two more setbacks away. And a franchise record 105 defeats is still possible unless the Mariners figure out how to win.

In other words, it could get a whole lot worse.

Notes

• The Mariners have lost 13 consecutive road games, tying them for the third longest streak in club history.

• An RBI single by Ichiro off Jerry Blevins in the seventh inning extended his hitting streak to 14 games. It also left him three hits shy of 1,800 for his career.

Ichiro is a career .358 hitter at the Coliseum, second highest all-time among players with a minimum of 150 plate appearances.

• Jose Lopez had a pair of doubles and is hitting .338 with a home run and 11 RBI off the A's this season.

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

For the record

Streak: L11

Home: 31-43

Road: 26-55

vs. AL West: 18-32

vs. L.A.: 4-11

vs. Oakland: 6-10

vs. Texas: 8-11

vs. AL East: 15-29

vs. AL Cent.: 15-28

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 19-30

vs. RHP: 38-68

Day: 18-34

Night: 39-64

One-run: 17-28

Extra inn.: 5-7