Sox sweep M’s

CHICAGO – Setting any type of offensive record that doesn’t involve futility would ordinarily be a positive step for the Seattle Mariners.

But even the sight of Ichiro Suzuki hitting his third double of the game in the seventh inning – equaling a franchise mark – wasn’t enough to overcome another Chicago White Sox power onslaught. Four more home runs for Chicago on Thursday night sent the Mariners to a 9-5 loss and their first sweep in a four-game series in a season of nightly lows.

Seattle, 6-20 this month, has already suffered its most July losses in franchise history. Two defeats the next two days would equal the team’s worst record in any month, set in August of its expansion 1977 season.

“As the series went on and we started giving up home runs, we started pitching more protectively, I think,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. “There were 15 of 39 first-pitch strikes, and whether it’s our ballpark or this ballpark, the same formula works. You have to get ahead of hitters. When you fall behind, especially against a club that’s as hot as this one with their power potential, you’re running into trouble.”

That’s precisely why Wakamatsu pulled starter David Pauley just two outs into the third inning. Pauley had entered the frame with a 2-0 lead, but started falling behind hitters and was on the short end of a 4-2 score just two outs later.

Ramon Castro added to that Chicago advantage with a pair of home runs off reliever Chris Seddon – in the fourth and sixth innings. Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin added two more homers off left-hander Garrett Olson in the seventh, much to the delight of 28,483 fans at U.S. Cellular Field.

Ichiro ignited the Mariners early on for the second straight game, leading off the first and third with doubles and scoring both times – on a double and sacrifice fly by Casey Kotchman.

Pauley had gone at least five innings his first three starts since being called up from Triple-A, allowing three runs or fewer each time.

But then he says his command came undone in the third inning and he could not get it back, with each pitch seeming to cause the situation to snowball into something worse.

“It could be that you have that kind of day in the minor leagues, but you might get away with a pitch there and have a guy roll over on a ball that up here, he gets a double on,” Pauley said. “So it gets magnified.”