Athletics solve Hernandez late

SEATTLE – Knowing when to say when with today’s pitchers can be a haunting decision.

Take a guy out when his pitch count passes 110, even though he’s been dealing? Or believe him when he says he’s fresh and let him continue?

That’s the choice the Seattle Mariners faced Sunday afternoon with Felix Hernandez, who said he was strong enough to carry on in the eighth inning. Then he faltered.

The Oakland A’s scored four runs in that inning and beat the Mariners 4-2 at Safeco Field in the most crushing defeat of rough opening month.

The Mariners went 2-4 on the homestand and have lost six of their past eight games.

It’s still early, but the most difficult-to-swallow indicator of this team’s current personality is its record in close games. Nine of the Mariners’ 14 losses have been by two runs or less, seven of them by one run.

“It wasn’t a good homestand,” manager John McLaren said. “We’ve just got to pick ourselves up and keep going.”

The next opportunity is Tuesday night in Cleveland, where they begin a six-game road trip with three against the Indians and three against the Yankees.

The biggest question Sunday was whether Hernandez pitched to one batter too many in the eighth after he’d overwhelmed the A’s with nearly everything he threw in the first seven innings.

They had four hits to that point and the Mariners’ offense, despite having misfired on several early opportunities, gave Hernandez a 2-0 lead.

He started the eighth by walking No. 9 hitter Jack Hannahan, following that with Mark Ellis’ double to left field and another walk – on four pitches – to Daric Barton.

Throughout that inning, Hernandez didn’t have the sharp control of his fastball that had baffled the A’s earlier in the game. And he started hanging his breaking pitches, a classic sign of fatigue.

After the walk to Barton, on Hernandez’s 112th pitch, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre went to the mound with one question: How do you feel?

“I feel strong,” Hernandez told Stottlemyre.

Three pitches later, he hung another curveball that Emil Brown launched to left field for a two-run single, tying the score 2-2. McLaren lifted Hernandez after that.

“He wasn’t missing by much,” McLaren said. “There were a couple of borderline pitches and a broken-bat single by Brown. But he was still strong; he just didn’t get the pitches.”

With nobody out and runners on first and second, the Mariners needed a strikeout or, better, a double-play grounder. Right-hander Sean Green is a specialist at getting ground balls with his sinker, but the Mariners had hard-throwing Brandon Morrow ready.

Morrow took over and walked Frank Thomas to load the bases, then allowed RBI singles to Jack Cust and Ryan Sweeney, giving the A’s a 4-2 lead.

Green finished that inning and got what the Mariners had needed in the first place, a grounder and strikeout to end the A’s threat. Green also pitched the ninth and got – go figure – a strikeout and double-play grounder.

The Mariners went down quietly in the final two innings.

Lost scoring opportunities early in the game cost them.

They scored once in the first inning on Adrian Beltre’s RBI single, then in the fourth when Yuniesky Betancourt hit a line drive over the left-field fence for his first home run.

Their lead could have been bigger against A’s starter Joe Blanton, who escaped bigger trouble in each of the first three innings.

Richie Sexson grounded out with runners on first and third to end the first inning. Lopez popped out with runners on first and third to end the second. Brad Wilkerson grounded back to the pitcher with runners on first and second to end the third.

It was the sixth that haunted the Mariners most.

Wilkerson doubled to left field and Kenji Johjima followed with a single, putting runners on first and third with one out.

Betancourt, two days after he stirred McLaren’s ire by swinging at a bad pitch and grounding into a rally-killing double play, did it again. With a 1-1 count, Blanton threw a swooping curveball that Betancourt lunged at, and his grounder to shortstop started an inning-ending double play.

Despite his double, Wilkerson continued to flounder offensively. He went 1 for 4 with two strikeouts, both on called third strikes.

“We let some opportunities slip away again,” McLaren said. “There are some positives, but we’re still not running on all cylinders. We’ve got too many guys who still aren’t swinging the bats well and aren’t driving in the runs when they’re out there. They always come back to haunt you.”