Sleeping in Seattle ...
The Mariners lost the first two games of a three-game series against the Rangers this week to drop the team's overall record to 15-26 and 2-11 in May. The Mariners have lost 12 of the last 14 games.
"We went into Spring Training with high expectations and a solid roster," said Mariners General Manager Bill Bavasi, who is traveling with the team. "They might have gone through the motions in Spring Training. Either that or they came out unprepared and are playing bad baseball."
Either way, Bavasi said he stands by the leadership and personnel on the field and in the dugout but is simply not pleased with the way his club has performed.
"They just have to do a better job," he said.
The Mariners had high hopes. During the offseason, the club traded for left-handed pitcher Erik Bedard and signed free agent pitcher Carlos Silva to compliment a pitching staff that features Felix Hernandez, Miguel Batista and Jarrod Washburn. Bedard and Hernandez are 0-5 for the month. The Mariners' starting pitching ranks 11th in the American League with a 4.59 ERA and the relievers are ranked seventh with a 4.17 ERA.
The offense has also struggled, hitting .249 overall and .236 with runners in scoring position. Adrian Beltre, Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Vidro, Wladimir Balentien, and Kenji Johjima have a combined batting average of .231. Richie Sexson is hitting .202.
"We definitely felt we have the pieces in place to make some noise this year and we still do," Washburn said. "But we have played about as bad as you can possibly play as a team. You are always going to go through stretches in team when the team goes bad, but maybe it's a good thing that it happened to us early on so we can figure it out and play good baseball the rest of the season."
The Mariners are last in the American League with a .308 on-base-percentage.
"Every team goes through things that we are going through," Vidro said. "We have good players but everybody is struggling at the same time. We have a lot of confidence. We are not walking around with our heads down."
The defense has not helped. The Mariners have committed 31 errors this season, the second most in the league. They committed five errors in the first two games against the Rangers.
"Even in the games we won, we probably have not played three games in a row of good baseball and it's caught up to us," Bavasi said. "We have the right parts but we are just playing bad baseball right now."
Mariners manager John McLaren remains optimistic. He believes the team has to "keep it simple" and not over-think the situation or the game. He says a momentum shifting play, be it a bloop-single, a double play or strikeout can get his team back on a winning streak.
He's just not sure when it is going to happen.
"We know what we are capable of doing," he said. "We've kind of been in an uphill battle for the last three to four weeks. We are fighting. You can't feel sorry for yourself, you can't sit in a corner and just mope. This is man's game and we know we are going to put it together. We just have out get out of this slump and get feeling good about ourselves."
The view from the bottom of the standings is daunting but Mariners infielder Miguel Cairo is not worried and said his teammates aren't either.
"There are four and half months to go and a lot of games left,"
Bavasi might not be panicking either but he is definitely not buying the "it's still early" rationale. The Mariners are nine games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL West standings.
"Enough time has gone by to where it's alarming," Bavasi said. "The only way back is to forget about wins and losses and simply play good baseball. Clean the game up and if it's clean, you will start to win games if you are good enough."
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