Mariners show rust

SEATTLE – Blame it, if you must, on the week of cabin fever during the recent road trip, but the Seattle Mariners won’t.

Whether it’s mid-April after having five games wiped out by weather or midseason when everyone should have found a rhythm, the Mariners showed what happens when they don’t get the key hit, fail to make a big play on defense or leave one pitch too many up in the strike zone.

The Texas Rangers beat them 5-2 Friday night at Safeco Field, where the M’s were thankful to have a roof overhead on a rainy night but needed more than that in their third game in eight days.

The Mariners out-hit the Rangers 11-9 and had runners in scoring position in five of the nine innings but scored single runs only in the sixth and seventh when one more hit could have changed the game.

The M’s hit in to three double plays, including one in the ninth inning to end the game when Rangers closer Eric Gagne recorded his first save since last June.

“We’re going to be fine,” said left fielder Raul Ibanez, who went 2 for 4, including a first-inning double that was the 200th of his career. “We did fine tonight.

“We lost. To say that it’s because of this, that or the other thing would be making an excuse. I don’t think that’s what this club is about. We’re going to grind through it.”

The difference was a few balls the Rangers off M’s starter Jarrod Washburn and a few the Mariners didn’t hit off Texas starter Kevin Millwood.

Washburn, who hadn’t pitched since April 3, gave up two runs in the second when his command – and the defense behind him – took a one-inning break. Then, in the fifth, he threw an armpit-high fastball that Ian Kinsler clubbed for a two-run homer.

In the third, Matt Kata dropped a bloop single to right-center field that had center fielder Ichiro Suzuki and right fielder Jose Guillen – two players who’d started just six times together – looking at each other. Washburn followed that by walking Jerry Hairston Jr.

Kinsler grounded sharply toward the hole between second and third, where third baseman Adrian Beltre made a diving stop but threw wildly to first, allowing Kata to score. Washburn appeared to get out of the inning when Michael Young hit a bouncer to the mound, but his throw was wide of second base and Yuniesky Betancourt had to make a lunging catch to get the out. Meanwhile, Hairston scored for a 2-0 Rangers lead.

In the fifth, Hairston hit a two-out single and Kinsler homered in his third straight game, making it 4-0.

“Washburn got tired probably a little quicker than he normally would have had he not had the layoff,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “But he pitched well enough to win.”

Millwood didn’t allow that to happen, although the Mariners had him within one timely hit away of serious trouble much of the night.

Betancourt lined into a double play to end the second; Jose Lopez grounded into a double play in the fifth after the M’s put runners on first and second with nobody out; and they had runners in scoring position in the sixth, seventh and eighth.

They scored twice, in the sixth on Richie Sexson’s double to drive in Ibanez and in the seventh when Beltre’s double drove in Lopez.

It didn’t help that Ichiro continued to slump. He went 0 for 4, struck out three times for the sixth time in his major league career and is hitting .182.

Just don’t blame the Mariners’ idle time on that road trip for their issues.

“I thought we played a good game,” Hargrove said. “We pitched well, we played defense well except for that one inning and we hit the ball well. We gave ourselves chances, but we didn’t get the big hit when we needed it. It had nothing to do with the layoff. It was baseball.”

Hargrove upset

Hargrove clearly isn’t happy with the scheduling that had the Mariners making their only trip this season to Cleveland and Boston, cities prone to bad weather this early.

Hargrove wouldn’t, however, reveal his true feelings after five of the seven games were wiped out by bad weather.

“I have a personal opinion about it that would blister the hell out of people. For that reason, I’ll keep them to myself,” he said.

Isn’t it unfair to ask a team that already has such a rigorous travel schedule to make up five games on off days, Hargrove was asked.

He repeated his prior answer.

Is Hargrove hopeful that schedule-makers will make changes in the future after what the Mariners have experienced?

He repeated the same answer.

Rhodes uncertain

The Mariners said injured relief pitcher Arthur Rhodes continued to evaluate his options after an exam early this week revealed a torn ligament in his left elbow.

Doctors recommended surgery to repair the injury, although Rhodes had planned to seek another opinion and decide whether he could rehab it without an operation.

The injury likely will keep Rhodes out the rest of the season.

The Mariners called up left-hander Jake Woods from Triple-A Tacoma, but Hargrove said there also are other options.

“We feel we have people who can come in and make up the slack,” Hargrove said, naming Eric O’Flaherty and Brad Thomas, two lefties pitching at Tacoma. “It doesn’t have to be a lefty, but we’d like for it to be.”

O’Flaherty had allowed one earned run in three innings of relief entering the day, and Thomas had a 13.50 ERA but struck out eight in 3 1/3 innings.

Thomas, signed March 1 as a minor league free agent, has pitched for the Red Sox and Twins, and spent last year with the Nippon Ham Fighters, who won the Japan League championship.