M’s battle, but lose anyway

It might have been easy to lay this one on the newbies, those Mariners youngsters capable of heart-warming moments and mind-numbing mistakes.

And certainly, there were a few of both in Seattle’s 6-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.

About the time a crowd of 36,154 fans at Safeco Field could have written off Seattle’s 56th loss of the year as another game of growing pains, it was the veterans who stood up and failed when it counted most.

Sure, rookie Bucky Jacobsen messed up a pickoff play that resulted in a balk — and yes, that balk resulted in a run.

OK, rookie Justin Leone made a wild throw in the eighth inning that led to a pair of unearned runs.

And yes, that was young catcher Miguel Olivo’s second passed ball in as many nights setting up another Indians run in the seventh inning.

When a team holds major league tryouts in mid-season, not every moment is a highlight.

“We’re going to have the occasionall hiccup,” manager Bob Melvin said.

The current herd of untested talent hiccupped a few times for the Mariners, but those same players put the Mariners in position to beat C.C. Sabathia.

Jacobsen’s first big-league home run with Edgar Martinez aboard in the second innning put Seattle and Ryan Franklin ahead, 2-0. Jacobsen then patiently drew a bases-loaded walk from Sabathia in the fifth inning, and the Mariners led, 3-1.

Then in the ninth inning with two outs and no one on, Jacobsen singled to spur a rally that loaded the bases.

Olivo tripled home one run in the eighth inning, then scored to pull the Mariners to within one at 6-5.

Leone, behind in the count 0-2 in the ninth, hung on to draw a walk.

So which of the kids cost the Mariners the game?

Put this one squarely on the guys who’ve been there, done that and know better.

In what seemed like Seattle’s daily search for offense, Jacobsen provided a long ball — and Melvin tried to run the Indians out of the game on the basepaths.

Randy Winn stole two bases. Jolbert Cabrera stole two bases. Bret Boone stole one. Twice those steals led to runs.

Each of them led to opportunties.

But, in the eighth with Ichiro on first but failing to attempt a steal, Boone grounded in a hard-luck double play, third base to second base to first base.

An inning later, down to their final out with Olivo at the plate and the bases loaded, that crowd had one last moment to cheer — Olivo broke his bat but dumped a wounded duck of a fly ball into short right center field.

All-Star second baseman Ronnie Belliard, playing deep to begin with, just did outrun the ball to make the catch and end the game.

“We can’t catch a break,” Melvin said. “That’s a great game. If we win it, they’re complaining they got beat on a broken-bat flare. It was that close tonight.”