Cleveland stymies Mariners' rally

In the absence of a real pennant race for the Mariners, the seeding for 2011 draft selection will have to do for day-to-day drama.

The Indians, in that context, are a significant September opponent. They are locked in a tight battle with the M's for the third-worst record in the majors, about the only juice to be found in their current four-game series at Safeco Field.

The Mariners, after splitting the first two games of the series, would have pulled into a dead heat with Cleveland with a win. But behind the strong pitching of starter Mitch Talbot, the Indians held on for a 4-2 victory.

The Mariners made it interesting in the eighth when Russell Branyan led off with a homer — his 22nd of the year, 12 for the Mariners and 10 for the Indians. The Mariners got runners on second and third with one out, but Michael Saunders and Matt Tuiasosopo struck out to end that threat.

"We put ourselves in a couple of positions where we could have took the game, could have tied the game," Tuiasosopo said. "I was in a situation and didn't come through."

Manager Daren Brown's postgame assessment could have been uttered at numerous other junctures in this season of massive offensive frustration.

"We put ourselves in position in the eighth inning to tie the game. But we didn't get the hit that we needed," said Brown, now 11-13 as M's manager. "That pretty much sums up the game. I keep talking about putting ourselves in situations to score, and that somebody will come up with a hit."

Theoretically, at least. The M's entered the game ranked last in the majors in virtually every offensive category — including runs, homers, average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage — and now have gone nine straight games without scoring more than three runs.

Brown praised the three shutout innings of rookie reliever Chris Seddon, and said it was a positive to at least have two of the M's young players put in a spot to try for a clutch hit.

"It didn't happen tonight, but as far as a learning experience, I think it's good having those guys up in those situations," he said.

Talbot allowed just an unearned run in 6-2/3 innings to raise his record to 9-11.

Michael Brantley, the son of former Mariners outfielder Mickey Brantley, and Shin-Soo Choo, himself a former Mariners outfielder, did much of the damage for the Indians off Seattle starter David Pauley.

In the first, Choo reached on a two-out walk, stole second and scored on Travis Hafner's single. The Indians opened the third with four straight hits, including a bunt single by Brantley and RBI singles by Asdrubal Cabrera — another former Mariner — and Choo.

The Indians' final run off Pauley came in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Brantley.

"There were some good things and bad things in this game," Pauley said. "I got a lot of ground balls — and a lot of them found holes. Being a ground-ball pitcher, sometimes they're going to be caught, and sometimes they're not."

The Mariners, meanwhile, needed a Cleveland error to get their first run. After stranding runners at third base in both the fifth and sixth, they finally broke through in the seventh.

With two outs, Tuiasosopo reached on a throwing error by shortstop Cabrera (originally ruled a single, but changed). After Josh Wilson was hit by a pitch, Rafael Perez replaced Talbot and gave up a bloop single by Ichiro as hard-charging left fielder Trevor Crowe barely missed a diving catch.

Ichiro's hit, which drove in Tuiasosopo, was his second of the game and 176th of the season. He has 26 games to get the 24 hits he needs to reach 200 for the 10th consecutive year.

Branyan's homer off Perez was followed by singles by Jose Lopez and Casey Kotchman. But after a sacrifice put them in scoring position, a single away from tying the game, reliever Tony Sipp fanned Saunders, and closer Chris Perez came in to strike out Tuiasosopo. Perez finished out for his 18th save.

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