Kansas City’s seven-run fourth inning sends Mariners to 8-2 loss

SEATTLE – Let’s credit the Seattle Mariners with this much over the last couple weeks. When they lose, they don’t mess around. No torment or anguish. No maybe, almost or what could have been.

They go down like an early Tyson victim. Hard. Often quick.

Wednesday night, for example. Mariners starter Roenis Elias retired the first nine Kansas City batters in order but failed to survive a seven-run fourth inning – again, a seven-run fourth inning – in an 8-2 loss.

The Mariners are 6-8 since June 11. All eight losses have been by three or more runs. Five have been by at least five runs. In five of those losses, their opponent scored at least four runs in a single inning.

That alone is a virtual knockout punch against a club that averages an American League-worst 3.42 runs per game.

The Mariners also, on Wednesday, lost the final game in a series for the ninth straight time. A victory in all but one of those nine games would have permitted them to either split, win or sweep a series.

Win just four of those nine games, and the Mariners have a winning record and some traction as the season pushes toward the halfway point.

Instead, they are 33-40, trail first-place Houston by 8 1/2 games in the A.L. West and are now just one-half game ahead of last-place Oakland.

Manager Lloyd McClendon keeps pointing out the season has a long way to go. True enough, 89 more games. And a 6-8 stretch is nothing near a collapse. But the Mariners are wasting opportunities.

On Wednesday, they faced Kansas City lefty Danny Duffy, who hadn’t pitched since May 16 because of biceps tendinitis. Duffy draws high marks for stuff, but he also had a 5.87 ERA in eight starts prior to his injury.

The Mariners had a few early chances they failed to cash, but Elias (4-5) was sailing along…until the fourth inning.

Then the dam broke. Seven runs scored. And that was too much for the Mariners to overcome even when Duffy weakened in a two-run fifth and failed to last long enough to qualify for the victory.

No problem for the Royals, who simply turned to their potent bullpen. Ryan Madson (1-1) got four outs after replacing Duffy. Then it was Kelvin Herrera, Franklin Morales and Brandon Finnegan.

Wade Davis and Greg Holland weren’t needed.

That seven-spot spiked Elias’ earned-run average from 3.56 to 4.25.

The M’s had suffered four shutouts in their previous 13 games but struck for two runs in the fifth. Singles by Brad Miller and Austin Jackson preceded a sac fly by just-returned Franklin Gutierrez.

A two-out error by Escobar on Cruz’s sharp grounder permitted another run to score.