M’s empty-handed again

BALTIMORE – In a game that came down to two at-bats for the Seattle Mariners, Mike Hargrove all but gave one of them up.

Call it a move that didn’t work, a piece of strategy that may not have cost the Mariners a game but certainly didn’t help in what became a 5-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

Fresh off an encouraging homestand – a 5-4 record against three tough teams – Seattle came to the American League East, scored five times in three games and were swept away. Seattle has now lost 10 of its last 11 road games.

“They pitched well, they earned it,” Hargrove said of the Mariners, “but we didn’t do much offensively in any of these games.”

Still, with the Mariners slumping at the plate and desperate for runs, Hargrove elected to stay with catcher Miguel Olivo – in a 0-for-10 slump and batting less than .140 at the time – in the seventh inning.

The situation?

Baltimore led, 3-1, and with two outs the Mariners had two men on base.

Right-hander Jorge Julio was on the mound to face Olivo, but the Orioles had left-hander Steve Kline ready in the bullpen.

On his bench, Hargrove had two left-handed pinch hitters – Dave Hansen and Greg Dobbs – and right-handed hitting catcher Pat Borders.

Hargrove stuck with Olivo, who grounded out to end the inning.

Why? Two reasons.

“We’re trying to get this kid going, yes, and he’s a good fastball hitter,” Hargrove said. “But one thing I learned from Sparky Anderson was not to shoot your bullets in the seventh inning. Inevitably, you need them in the ninth inning.”

Not this time, because reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa allowed an eighth-inning, two-run home run to Miguel Tejada that got the Orioles to the ninth inning with a 5-1 lead.

So Jeremy Reed’s first major league home run in the ninth did little but irritate the man who allowed it – Kline.

And the Mariners other key at-bat? That came in the eighth inning, with the Mariners still down by two runs. This time with two out and two men on base, it was cleanup hitter Richie Sexson at the plate.

Sexson fouled off a half-dozen pitches, then struck out.

“Yeah, I fouled off some tough pitches, and I fouled off some pitches I should have hit and didn’t,” Sexson said. “I wound up swinging at something over my head, so I don’t consider that at-bat anything positive.

“I let him get away.”

Not surprisingly, since the Mariners scored only once, their starting pitcher was Ryan Franklin. Last year he had the worst run support of any starter in major league baseball, and in his six losses this year Seattle’s output has totaled five runs.

Go ahead – try winning those games.

“About the fourth inning I … thought, ‘We’re not getting him much support again tonight,’ ” Hargrove said. “It’s a shame. He certainly pitched well enough to win – again.”

That Franklin did.

No, he didn’t dominate the A.L. East-leading Orioles, but in seven innings, he allowed only three runs.

“I pitched pretty well, their pitcher did better and we lost,” Franklin said. “I kept us in the game. I gave up two home runs and it beat me.

“On the first one, I hung a slider to (Melvin) Mora, and on the other one, I threw a sinker to (Rafael) Palmeiro on the outside part of the plate. It was a 3-2 pitch, and I was like, ‘If you can hit this pitch, go ahead.’ “

Franklin tried to laugh. “He did. … Over the center-field fence.”

One run wasn’t going to be enough, and Franklin didn’t even get that until the sixth inning. Then, Ichiro Suzuki tripled to center field and scored on Randy Winn’s sacrifice fly.