Mariners played Sunday the way they need to to win

Three weeks of frustration were taken out on one fat, 3-0 fastball. With the Mariners down 2-1 in the third, Raul Ibanez — who has suffered stoically through this long, cold spring — crushed a pitch from Chicago's Gavin Floyd 443 feet into the right-field stands for a two-run home run that practically felt like it saved the season.

The Safeco Field crowd that sat through this frosty May afternoon of baseball, rumbled its approval. The dugout lit up. It was the Mariners' first lead since last Monday, and it was time to celebrate even this slim lead.

"I would love to look back on that and say, 'This is where it turned around,' " manager John McLaren said of Ibanez's homer. "One reason is it would be good for us, but another reason is that he's a special person and he cares so much."

This was the way the Mariners were supposed to win games this season: Get a lead and then add on with a manufactured run here and another one there.

The M's were built to contend in the American League West with good starting pitching, reliable relief, defense, aggressive baserunning and clutch hitting.

But they haven't played defense. They haven't been aggressive. And they haven't hit, period.

Sunday was either the start of the recovery, or just a glimmer of hope in a season of despair.

For one day at least, the hitters cut through the gloom. The Mariners scrapped. They ran the bases with aggression. They played like the team they were supposed to be coming out of Peoria in March.

Ichiro slapped three hits and put constant pressure on Chicago's defense. Slump-ridden Kenji Johjima had two hits. Starter Miguel Batista punched his way off the ropes. And the bullpen was circa 2007.

Even Miguel Cairo got a hit and drove in two runs.

"For a while there, we couldn't bunch up even two hits in a row," McLaren said after Sunday's 6-3 win over Chicago. "I've never seen a team just go into a deep freeze like that. I don't think we were swinging the bats good, whatever those reasons were. And then all of a sudden, it became a mental grind."

Mysteriously and quickly, the fun of playing baseball left the Mariners' clubhouse. There was no joy in Safeco, or Yankee Stadium or wherever the team was playing.

Good hitters got tight. Young hitters got skittish. Every deficit seemed insurmountable.

"The two poor young kids [Jeff Clement and Wladimir Balentien] came up right at the time that we were going through this and it was like, 'Welcome aboard.' " McLaren said. "I think all the guys were working too hard and we've tried to back them off a little bit."

McLaren told the story of the late Russ Swan.

Swan, a Mariners pitcher from 1990 to 1993, had struggled in a relief appearance. After the game, McLaren, the bullpen coach at the time, went looking for him. He found Swan in the weight room pushing himself on the StairMaster.

McLaren checked the timer and saw his reliever had been on the machine for more than an hour. Then he asked, "Are you doing this to get in shape, or are you doing this to punish yourself?"

The point of McLaren's story was that the Mariners have been punishing themselves. Pressing too hard. Grinding too much. Making mistakes because they can't make themselves relax.

"Sometimes, I think, when you struggle, you work so hard to try to make up for it. And sometimes you need to step back and feel good about yourself," he said. "I'm not saying, 'Don't play with intensity,' but laugh at yourself once in a while."

McLaren has seen the tension build, not only with his hitters, but with his pitchers. In Felix Hernandez's last start on Thursday, Hernandez fought himself as much as he fought the Texas Rangers.

The same thing happened in the early innings Sunday. Batista's pitch count rose alarmingly; the right-hander threw 115 pitches in just 5-1/3 innings.

"We're getting killed with pitch-count problems," McLaren said. "They [Hernandez and Batista] kill themselves in the first two innings. I mean, they work hard. And these are guys who know how to pitch. Been around a while. And they put you in a position where you have no choice. You got to hook them out of the game early."

For one of the rare times in this 15-24 start, the Mariners on Sunday played hit-'em-where-they-ain't ball. They strung together singles and doubles off four White Sox pitchers, including Floyd, who took a no-hitter into the ninth inning of his last start.

This is the way the Mariners have to play. And even though it's just May 12 and school is still in session, there should be a sense of urgency as the team travels into the heat of Texas.

A sense of urgency, as well as a sense of relief.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com