M’s wallow as worst

SEATTLE – With an opportunity to show who’s not the worst team in baseball, the Seattle Mariners instead are proving this weekend who is.

Another game of mistakes on the bases, at the plate and on the mound Saturday night resulted in a 5-2 loss to the Washington Nationals at Safeco Field.

It solidified the Mariners’ standing as baseball’s worst team – with a 24-44 record – in a second straight loss to the second-worst team.

A loss in today’s series finale not only would complete a sweep, it could raise the specter that more jobs could be in jeopardy. Early last week, hitting coach Jeff Pentland was fired.

Saturday night’s game swung on Jesus Flores’ two-run homer in the seventh inning off Mariners reliever Miguel Batista to break a 2-all tie.

That was among the many reasons the Mariners fell again.

•Ichiro Suzuki tried to stretch a leadoff double into a triple, and a perfect relay by the Nationals threw him out at third base. The old saying about never making the first out of an inning at third base rang true – and painful – when Jose Lopez followed with a single.

•Yuniesky Betancourt made two phenomenal plays in the field but, with the score tied and an opportunity to move two runners into scoring position with nobody out in the seventh, he couldn’t execute one of baseball’s most basic elements – the sacrifice bunt.

Reliever Saul Rivera whistled three pitches past Betancourt to strike him out, including a third one when Betancourt defied the Mariners’ wishes and tried to bunt on his own with a full count.

“He wanted to show he could do it,” M’s manager McLaren said, obviously perplexed. “I don’t know what to say.”

With runners still at first and second, Ichiro grounded into an inning-ending double play.

•Starting pitcher Erik Bedard, trying to pitch more than five innings for the first time this month, did that.

He was done after six, however, having reached his limit with 100 pitches after allowing nine hits and single runs in the first and fourth innings.

“He said he was running on empty, so we had to get him out,” McLaren said.

•While Richie Sexson’s new hitting approach remains a work in progress, it’s still hardly a work of art. Sexson’s new open-feet/closed-shoulder stance resulted in a 0-for-4 game, including strikeouts in the sixth and ninth when he looked overmatched by everything thrown to him.

No at-bat was as difficult as his in the sixth.

The Mariners, with the score tied 2-2, had loaded the bases with two outs against Nationals right-hander Tyler Clippard, who was making his eighth major league start.

Sexson, who’d flied out his first two at-bats, couldn’t get around on an 89 mph pitch and fouled it off for strike two, then swung through a 90 mph fastball down the middle for strike three.