You get a vibe sometimes when you walk into a clubhouse post-game. And the vibe I got tonight was not a very good one at all. You kind of get the feeling that this Mariners team has reached a crossroads of sorts. They are now 11-15 and though they are still only 2 1/2 games out in one of baseball's worst divisions, this kind of losing is not doing them any favors.

Bottom line is, there is no help in sight.

The kind of offense we saw tonight won't be fixed with a minor tweak here or there. Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu benched Milton Bradley after his second consecutive called strikeout, taken in the sixth inning. The bases were loaded with one out at the time when Bradley stared at a James Shields pitch down the heart of the plate.

All the pre-game preaching the M's had done about quality at-bats and looking for a hittable pitch seemed to fly out the window.

"We just felt that, with what went on in the two strikeouts, it was time to get him out of the ballgame,'' Wakamatsu said, without elaborating further.

Inside the clubhouse, Bradley was nowhere to be seen. At least by the media.

According to people inside the clubhouse, Bradley was very upset about being taken out of the game.

But I'll tell you what. It's highly unlikely Bradley was yanked just because of the two strikeouts. Not in a close game like this was. We saw him fling off his batting helmet after one of the strikeouts and it went bouncing away on the ground. From what we're told, there was more stuff thrown once he got back to the dugout.

As to the timing of it, and whether that's what led to his being pulled, or whether he threw more stuff after being benched, I can't tell you. All I was told was, he was not happy afterwards.

Like I said, Bradley wasn't around to ask about it. Wakamatsu wasn't saying anything more.

After the game, in a far corner of the clubhouse, veterans Chone Figgins, Jack Wilson, Mike Sweeney and Casey Kotchman sat talking quietly. Sweeney's locker is at the opposite end of the room, so he'd come over to join in the conversation. It did not look like they were discussing weekend plans.

Wilson made three of the team's four errors in this game, two on late hops and one when he slipped while throwing. He remembers the exact details of his last three-error game, which occured a full nine years ago.

And while he added that he'll take the same routes to balls tommorrow, he did admit that all the bad bounces seem a good metaphor for what's happened to this team.

"It was almost like icing on the cake for us as far as stuff not going our way,'' he said. "It really can't get worse than what happened. The offense is still sputtering and one of our best attributes, our defense, kind of fell apart on us as well.''

So now, we'll learn a lot about this Mariners team and where it's going. You've got Cliff Lee tomorrow and that can help right a ship in a hurry. But you still have to score runs to win his games.

And with too many guys looking lost out there at the plate, that's no sure bet of victory even with Lee out there.

And so, we'll learn plenty about this team in the days ahead. It's one thing to talk of being a contender. But it's times like these where contending teams discover ways to overcome setbacks and get things done. We'll see whether or not the M's can do this. Or, whether they'll be content to drift further back of .500, relying only on the ineptitude of divisional opponents to stay close.

They played what looks like a real playoff team tonight and got flattered by the final score.

Wakamatsu vowed changes to how this team played tonight. Especially in light of the shoddy defense.

"We talk about coming together as a club,'' Wakamatsu said. "We're kind of at a point right now, where, watching that game, I don't know if anybody in this clubhouse is proud of it. It's one of those games that was awfully sloppy. We talk about pressure, we talk about where we're at right now. And some of those things we're going to address and fix. I promise you that.''

But talk is cheap. It's time for these Mariners to stop talking and get the job done.