Defense fails Mariners in 4-2 loss to Yankees

This was one postgame scorecard Ryan Rowland-Smith should have been asking for as he toweled off at his locker.

Instead, it was likely tossed in the trash after seven shutout innings that Rowland-Smith will never see officially recorded. A pair of defensive plays the Mariners failed to make behind the Australian left-hander Friday night proved huge by the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss to the New York Yankees.

Mark Teixeira hit a go-ahead home run off reliever Mark Lowe in that final frame, but the score was only tied because of a failure by Jose Lopez to turn a double play in the second inning and a grounder that somehow got through the left side of the infield in the fifth.

"I had a good view of it all the way," Mariners shortstop Josh Wilson said of Derek Jeter's grounder with two out and a runner on second. "I just let it go right under my glove. I was thinking about trying to make the play, and I think I tried to go a little too fast instead of being a little more conscious of the runner at second base and just trying to keep the ball in the infield."

By failing to knock the ball down, Wilson allowed Melky Cabrera to come around from second to score.

Third baseman Jack Hannahan also had a shot at the ball, but it went under his glove first, then scooted by Wilson. Both were replacing injured regulars Adrian Beltre and Jack Wilson on a night the depleted M's hung in as long as they could against the power-laden Yankees.

But their non-play cost Rowland-Smith an earned run and tied the score 2-2. New York had also scored a second-inning run, charged to Rowland-Smith, when Lopez double-clutched the ball when trying to turn a 5-4-3 double play that would have ended the inning.

The crowd of 36,769 at Safeco Field might have sensed what was coming next when Teixeira stepped up in the ninth and belted Lowe's third pitch of the inning deep into the right-field stands. New York tacked on an insurance run when Robinson Cano blooped a double and scored on a line-drive single by Nick Swisher.

Rowland-Smith wound up with a no-decision, despite allowing just three hits in seven innings. But a Mariners defense that has helped pitchers all season long could not come through this time.

"I know what I'm capable of," he said. "I've just got to go out there and do it repetitively."

Rowland-Smith is starting to do that, having now gone seven innings in three of his past five outings and 6-2/3 frames in another. This time, he mixed in some late-breaking pitches and changeups to keep the Yankees off-balance throughout.

A couple of those missed their targets in a 22-pitch first-inning. But Rowland-Smith settled in after that, notching five strikeouts and getting the Yankees to "mis-hit" the ball with a pitch-to-contact approach.

"It seems like once I settle in after those first couple of innings, I wind up pitching the way I want," he said.

And the Mariners needed Rowland-Smith to be every bit as good as he was.

After scoring twice in the first inning off Yankees starter Andy Pettitte — on a Lopez double and a Ken Griffey Jr. ground out — the Mariners were shut out the rest of the way and struck out 10 times against the southpaw in his six innings.

"With a veteran pitcher like Pettitte, we had him close to 60 pitches in three innings," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. "I thought we had a solid approach, we used the opposite field, we were pretty patient.

"And then we let him back in the ballgame. We let him back in there pitch-count wise."

And while Wakamatsu thought Rowland-Smith did "a miraculous job" of keeping Seattle in it, he pulled the lefty after 99 pitches. Lowe retired the side in a 1-2-3 eighth, then made one bad pitch to Teixeira that decided the game in the ninth.

"It's a game of inches," Wakamatsu said with a shrug.

A few inches short for Rowland-Smith and his team.

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