Mariners make moves after 3-1 loss in 11 innings to Texas

In a season marked by increasingly damaging offensive struggles by the Mariners, they might have reached a new level of frustration in Sunday's 3-1, 11-inning loss to the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field.

And after they wasted a brilliant start by Doug Fister two days after wasting a brilliant debut start by Cliff Lee, a shake-up was inevitable.

Before the game, manager Don Wakamatsu had said, "We're starting the second month of the season, and now is not the time to say we've got to mortgage the farm."

But after the game — one in which the Mariners managed just five hits, and none after Jack Wilson's leadoff single in the fifth inning — the Mariners acted. They released outfielder Eric Byrnes, whose averaged dropped to .094 (3 for 32) with an 0-for-4 performance Sunday, and optioned Matt Tuiasosopo to Class AAA Tacoma so he could play every day.

To take their roster spots, outfielder Ryan Langerhans and infielder Josh Wilson were selected from Tacoma. Both will be in uniform Tuesday when the Mariners open a three-game series with Tampa Bay.

"Tui didn't do anything wrong," general manager Jack Zduriencik said when reached by phone Sunday evening. "But he's a young player, and playing time is essential for his development. He'll go down and play every day at multiple positions."

The Mariners signed Byrnes, 34, on Jan. 29 after he was released by Arizona. They were paying him the major-league minimum of $400,000, while the Diamondbacks were responsible for the remaining $10.6 million of his 2010 contract. His release comes two days after he botched an 11th-inning squeeze bunt.

"We all love Eric, and his energy and competitiveness, but we had an opportunity to bring up two players who have been here before that we feel can help us," Zduriencik said. "When we told him, he handled it in a tremendously professional manner. It's never easy, but he was classy.

"Eric was disappointed, but I can't say enough about how he handled it. He appreciated the opportunity to be here, and said he liked our team's chances and would be cheering for us. He said he's looking forward to what's next, which he doesn't know yet what it will be."

The Mariners desperately need an offensive infusion. Wilson is hitting .333 with a Pacific Coast League-leading 11 doubles. Langerhans has a .282 average and a .391 on-base percentage.

Not only did the Mariners score just four runs in 32 innings against the Rangers (who completed their first three-game sweep at Safeco Field ever), but they hit .179 with two extra-base-hits, both doubles. They have gone 64 innings without hitting a home run.

"It just kind of tells you the shape of the offense right now," Wakamatsu said. "There's no quick fixes in this offense, there's no one guy that has to get hot. It's everybody pulling together to put quality at-bats together and stringing some consistency together. To look at the pitching in this series is crazy. These guys pitched their tails off, especially Doug Fister."

Fister continues to be a revelation this season. After taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Baltimore two starts ago, he took a perfect game into the sixth on Sunday. When Ichiro made a leaping grab to rob leadoff hitter Justin Smoak of a home run, it seemed that magic might be in the air. But the next hitter, Max Ramirez, punched a clean single into left, and the perfecto was done.

Fister went on to blank the Rangers on three hits through eight innings, not walking any while striking out three. His earned-run-average fell to 1.29, allowing him to surpass Minnesota's Francisco Liriano (1.50) for the AL's lowest ERA.

"Unbelievable. I don't know if you can pitch any better than he did today," Wakamatsu said. "He keeps getting better and better, especially against an offense like the Rangers. To shut them down for eight innings is pretty phenomenal."

Asked if it was disappointing not to get a "W" after such an outing, Fister said, "More important is for the team to win. Unfortunately, it just didn't work for us today."

The Mariners provided Fister with just one run, that coming in the fourth when Chone Figgins singled, stole second and scored on Franklin Gutierrez's single. But as has become painfully typical, they couldn't tack on any runs despite having second and third with no outs, and bases loaded with one out, as center fielder Julio Borbon ran down a drive by Rob Johnson.

Still, the 1-0 lead held up until the ninth, when Wakamatsu called upon closer David Aardsma. Fister had thrown 100 pitches, and gave up a pair of two-out hits in the eighth.

Aardsma's fatal mistake was walking leadoff hitter Elvis Andrus, who stole second and scored the tying run on David Murphy's one-out single.

"You can't walk a guy in that situation," Aardsma said. "When they give you the lead, it doesn't matter how you get it, you got to win it."

But it was the Rangers who won it by pushing across two runs against Mark Lowe in the 11th, aided by two critical passed balls from Johnson. Borbon led off with a single, moved to second on the first passed ball and took third when Andrus' sacrifice attempt turned into a bunt single.

Young struck out, but Murphy broke the tie with a sacrifice fly. After a single by Josh Hamilton, the second passed ball allowed Andrus to score.

Asked what happened, Johnson said tersely, "I missed 'em."

The Mariners went down quickly in the 11th, ending another lost afternoon at Safeco and instituting the first major roster shake-up of the season.

Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com