M's skid hits six

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- It was only after the stunning move to pull Jeff Weaver off the mound just three innings in that Sunday's game truly came apart on the Mariners.

With Seattle trailing by two runs, a couple of errors by a usually reliable shortstop, two wild pitches and a double blooped down the line combined to seal a sixth straight Mariners loss. Weaver was already seated by his clubhouse locker when the fifth-inning mess went down, and the Mariners failed to muster another late comeback in suffering a 6-1 defeat and series sweep to the Los Angeles Angels.

"He'd given up seven hits and three runs in three innings and I didn't see it getting any better," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said of Weaver. "And the way we've been going and scoring runs late, I just didn't want to put the ballclub in the hole any more than we already were that early in the game."

Strong words about a guy being paid $8.3 million. Hargrove said Weaver will make his next start, but general manager Bill Bavasi expects to see the pitcher change some things on the mound.

"We'll have to make some adjustments, and he'll be more effective," Bavasi said with a shrug. "He didn't go to St. Louis [last season] without making adjustments."

Weaver declined to be interviewed after the game, telling a media relations representative it "wouldn't be a good idea."

This M's losing streak has yet to reach the 11-game proportions of last August, but is no less worrisome considering the team still has designs on competing this year. Talk about the "hot seat" is heating up and will mount with each new defeat -- a tough situation for Class AAA call-up Cha-Seung Baek, likely to start against the Texas Rangers tonight.

Hargrove termed the weekend "forgettable" and said that "nothing we did worked." He added that while it's still early, "we'll try some things, do some things to try to shake it up."

Bavasi said that while it is early, April games are as important as those in September.

"Every game's important," he said. "If you're tied for the division lead, it doesn't always come down to the month of September."

The Mariners have dropped to 5-9, though they remain just two games behind division leaders Oakland and Los Angeles, both playing .500 ball.

Weaver didn't get smacked around quite as badly as he had in his first two starts. But he had already thrown 68 pitches through three innings, despite getting ahead in the count against the majority of hitters.

The lack of a true "out" pitch came back to haunt Weaver as Erick Aybar dribbled a 1-2 offering up the third-base line in the bottom of the second to drive in the game's first run. Gary Matthews Jr. then stroked his second double of the game for a 2-0 lead.

Weaver went 0-2 in the count against seven of the first 11 batters faced, but saw four of them come away with hits.

It was 3-0 in the third after Casey Kotchman lined a ball to left center that a diving Raul Ibanez could not corral, scoring another run. Though Weaver rallied with consecutive strikeouts to end the inning, his manager thought he was done right there.

"I didn't really know what was going on," catcher Jamie Burke said. "I didn't know if he was hurt or what. I thought he was hurt."

The seven-plus combined innings delivered by Weaver and fellow starter Horacio Ramirez in consecutive outings contrasted sharply with the seven innings apiece delivered by Angels counterparts Bartolo Colon on Saturday and Ervin Santana on Sunday.

Despite recent struggles, the Angels clearly distinguished themselves as the better mound team here. They had some help, though, from a Seattle offense that went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position on Sunday and scored a grand total of one run before the seventh inning in all three games here combined.

That came when Adrian Beltre launched a Santana pitch into the rock display behind the center-field fence in the fifth. At that point, it was a 3-1 game.

But two errors by shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and two wild pitches by reliever Sean White in the bottom of the inning took care of any comeback thoughts. Garret Anderson blooped a double to left to bring in two more runs for a 5-1 lead.

"It was frustrating because we lost," Beltre said. "It doesn't matter how we lose. Nobody wants to come here and lose three games in a row. Now we've lost six in a row and it's not fun. It's not our hitting, it's not our pitching. Everybody's into it. We have to start playing better."

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

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners