Clutch hits elude Mariners in loss to Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – For the longest time, the Mariners have endured a tremendous struggle to get hits.

Lately, the futile effort has been focused on getting clutch hits.

Whether that qualifies as progress is debatable, but the upshot is that the Mariners, buried by their failures with runners in scoring position, dropped their fourth straight on Tuesday, 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Since Michael Saunders’ grand slam in Toronto on April 27, they have been in a huge funk in clutch situations as they continue to negate what started out as a great trip.

They were hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position on Tuesday and have now gone 0 for 30 in such situations since Saunders’ big hit. All of their runs since then – a mere five of them in four games – have come via solo home runs, including one by Saunders on Tuesday.

“We’re missing that big hit right now,” Saunders said.

“We are getting runners on base and putting ourselves in a position to put runs on the board. But we’re missing that big hit.”

Rays closer Fernando Rodney ended it with a flourish, striking out the side in the ninth, including newly activated Mike Carp – in his first at-bat since hurting his shoulder March 28 – to end it.

The key for the Mariners is to keep this stretch of squandered rallies from snowballing. Manager Eric Wedge noted that such struggles can become contagious for young teams.

“You’re not allowed to do that,” he said. “That’s where the individual and the team separate themselves from time to time. It’s OK to roll from a team standpoint when things are firing the momentum in the right direction. But when things aren’t going that way, someone has to step up. Someone has to stop it.”

Jesus Montero, in his first game as the Mariners’ semi-regular catcher in the wake of Miguel Olivo’s injury, did his best to be the man. He went 4 for 4 to raise his average 35 points to .294.

“Four good contacts today,” he said. “Everything was good tonight. I’m really happy, but I hope to win tomorrow.”

Montero will share catching duties with John Jaso as Olivo went on the disabled list with a groin injury.

Montero also continued his torrid hitting while behind the plate. He is 13 for 24 (.542) when catching, with three homers and eight runs batted in, compared to 12 for 61 (.197) with one homer and five RBI when serving as designated hitter.

“I think most players do better when they play, because it’s not just one dimension,” Wedge said. “You’re out there playing the game, and you’re not sitting around thinking about, or dissecting, your at-bats. I think that’s just human nature.”

But the Mariners couldn’t do anything to get Montero home, and are 4-4 on this trip with two games to play against the Rays.

The Rays (16-8), meanwhile, made their scarce hits count. They had just three of them, none after the third inning.

Saunders’ homer, his fourth, led off the third inning against Tampa Bay’s touted rookie, Matt Moore, who earned his first win of the season. Saunders, who had ill-advisedly bunted in a key ninth-inning situation on Monday, pounced on Moore’s first pitch and crushed it deep into the right-field bleachers.

Mariners starter Hector Noesi came into the game lugging a 8.83 earned-run average, and needing a solid outing to make his case for staying in the rotation. He gave up three runs in the first two innings, keyed by a triple and homer from Matt Joyce, and seemed on the verge of being knocked out. But he settled down to retire the next nine in a row before walking Carlos Pena and exiting the game.