An ugly game on a beautiful day

This was the kind of spring day seems like we've been waiting for all year, and more than 31,000 Mariner fans piled into Safeco Field hoping for a good day of baseball.

For about five innings, they got it. Then the bullpen imploded, giving up seven of the team's season-high 10 walks, and it all came apart in an 11-2 loss.

I detailed the nuts and bolts of it in the game story here, which includes the post-game admission of Mariner manager Don Wakamatsu that it was an embarassing performance.

"It boiled down to two innings --- the sixth and the seventh,'' Wakamatsu said.

In those two innings, the Angels scored 10 runs, and took not only the game but that much more momentum away from a Mariner team that hoped it had begun to find itself with those three wins against Minnesota earlier in the week.

Instead, the Mariners now face a pretty stark immediate outlook. After Sunday, they play just six games at home until July 5, which includes a 10-game road trip that starts Monday at Texas, San Diego and St. Louis --- winning any of those would be an upset --- and after six games at home, then features another nine-game road trip at Milwaukee, the Yankees and the Tigers.

Buried deep as they already are in the standings, it could be really ugly by the time they come home for an extended period again on July 5 --- a time by which some major decisions (Cliff Lee?) may have to be made.

Obviously, the really big problem today was the walks. As Kelley said in the story, he just wasn't really sure what the problem was --- he said he'll look at video Sunday and try to figure out if there was a mechanical issue. He said that everything felt right up to the time the ball landed in the catcher's mit. Mostly, he said, he was missing high.

Said Wakamatsu: "Kelley's been throwing as good as anybody in our bullpen but for some reason he just couldn't feel the ball and ended up with command issues.''

Sean White and Garrett Olson also struggled.

Not that there weren't some other issues --- the Michael Saunders' base-running gaffe in the third inning when he should have slid into third to beat the throw instead of going in standing up and getting thrown out. And there was the weird double play in the fifth, when the Mariners could have seized some momentum, when Ervin Santana briefly caught the ball, then dropped it. It was ruled that he dropped it on the transfer, so he got credit for the out and Chone Figgins was doubled off second. Wakamatsu argued otherwise but to no avail.

Basically, just that kind of day --- so bad, that Wakamatsu said that if Chad Cordero had struggled at all in the ninth, he would have gone to a position player to finish out the game (probably Josh Wilson).

The horrid last 24 hours --- Seattle has been outscored 18-3 in two losses to the Angels in this series ---- have made the M's the unquestioned trailer in the AL West. The Angels weren't looking much better off than the Mariners but have now won four in a row against Seattle in the last eight days, and nine of their past 11 overall. The Mariners are now eight back of division leading Texas, and six back of the rest of the pack.

The M's will need another good game from Jason Vargas Sunday when they try to salvage one game against the Angels, who will counter with ex-Mariner Joel Pineiro.