Ichiro hit streak hits 20 games but Mariners lose 4-3 in Oakland

OAKLAND, Calif. — A couple of walks that loaded the bases early and late provided entirely different results for a frustrated group of Mariners.

Both free passes were to Matt Holliday of the Oakland Athletics and brought Jason Giambi to the plate each time. But while Mariners starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn actually pitched around Holliday in the first inning to get to Giambi, a hitter he has owned his entire career, fireballing reliever Mark Lowe in no way wanted to face the lefty slugger in the seventh inning.

But Giambi is what he got and Lowe saw him line the first pitch into center field to bring home two decisive runs and seal a 4-3 loss for a Mariners club that had dominated Tuesday night's game to that point. Afterward, a disappointed Lowe lamented having walked Holliday on four pitches to force in a run and bring Giambi to the plate.

"In that situation, you have to get strike one right away," Lowe said of the Holliday plate appearance, which came after he'd gotten Jack Cust to pop out to shallow center for the second out of the inning. "That walk is completely unacceptable in that situation."

And so, the Mariners suffered a second straight defeat on a night 10,371 fans at the Coliseum saw Ichiro extend his hitting streak to 20 games with a run-scoring single that gave Seattle a 3-0 lead into the top of the seventh. Things looked well in-hand at that point after six shutout innings by Washburn, who was coming off a sore knee that sidelined him from his previously scheduled start Saturday.

His continued dominance of Giambi aided in that, with Washburn twice striking him out, in the first with the bases loaded and in the third with a runner on. He later got him to fly out to right in the sixth with another runner on base.

"I kind of pitched around Holliday and loaded the bases to get to Giambi," said Washburn, who's held the feared hitter to just an 8-for-45 (.178) lifetime mark at the plate with eight strikeouts. "I didn't want to make a mistake to Holliday and I tried to play it safe there. I'm always very confident against lefties. And if I put [Holliday] on there, it would be a lefty-lefty matchup."

But the Mariners tempted fate once too often in the seventh.

Miguel Batista walked a pair of batters and gave up two singles in the seventh, one of them by Orlando Cabrera to bring home the first Oakland run. Lowe entered with the bases loaded and gave up the final three runs, all charged to losing pitcher Batista.

The Oakland four-spot had the Mariners regretting that they hadn't made more of an early scoring outburst in the top of the first. Seattle took a 2-0 lead on a run-scoring double by Mike Sweeney and then a single by Russell Branyan off Oakland starter Dallas Braden.

But Sweeney, bothered by minor back spasms in Monday's game, tweaked the problem while sliding into second on his double. He then had his back give out on him on the Branyan hit as he rounded third in an effort to score.

Sweeney fell to the ground and had to scramble back to third. Jose Lopez hit into a double play to end the inning.

"It crushes me," Sweeney, who was replaced at DH by Ken Griffey Jr. in the third inning, said of the missed scoring chance. "Because Washburn pitched great and as the scoreboard shows now, we needed that run."

Sweeney is listed as day to day. But it remains to be seen how the team recovers after playing one of its better games of late and still coming up short.

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