Mariners strand 11, lose to Kansas City 7-0

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Eric Wedge did not like what he witnessed Saturday, and the Seattle manager made sure his team knew it.

In a 7-0 loss to Kansas City, the Mariners stranded 11 runners, committed two errors, allowed three unearned runs and were shut out by four Royals pitchers.

"I had a few choice words for them," Wedge said. "I'm not real happy right now. I made it very clear as to how we're going to go about our business. We just didn't play good baseball at all today. That's what angers me more than anything."

The Mariners, who are hitting an American League-worst .182 with runners in scoring position, went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

"That's the problem," Wedge said. "It's the same thing, different day. It's nor acceptable. We're not going to keep watching this. We're going to get better. We're going to address it, like we've been doing as a team and individually, but we're going to get better. We're not going to keep doing what we're doing.

"We've done an OK job of getting runners on base, but we're leaving eight to 10 on when we do that."

The Mariners are 1 for 15 with the bases loaded this season. They loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but Michael Saunders flied out to shallow left and Chris Gimenez struck out to strand them.

Felix Hernandez, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, should be used to this. Since the start of the 2008 season, he has received the lowest run support among AL starting pitchers.

"It will be fine," Hernandez said. "It's just the beginning of the season. We're trying hard. We're trying to do the best we can. We've just got to keep working hard, just keep trying to hit and pitch. That's all we can do."

Three of the five runs off Hernandez were unearned after an error by Chone Figgins in the fifth.

"I've got to settle down because that's part of the game," Hernandez said. "I've got to keep making pitches."

Alex Gordon added three hits to his league-leading total and drove in two runs and Sean O'Sullivan out-pitched Hernandez.

Mike Aviles had two hits and three RBIs as the Royals beat the Mariners for the third straight day and handed them their 11th loss in 13 games.

O'Sullivan (1-1) threw five shutout innings in his first start of the year. He allowed five hits and two walks, striking out four. He was helped by shortstop Alcides Escobar's run-saving defensive play on a hard-hit grounder by Ichiro Suzuki, who was 0 for 5 and had his Kauffman Stadium hitting streak stopped at 16 games.

Gordon extended his hitting streak to 10 games, longest active in this majors this year, with a leadoff single in the fourth and eventually scored on Melky Cabrera's sacrifice fly. He raised his hits total to 22.

Figgins was charged with an error when Escobar's sharply hit grounder skipped over his glove. With two outs, Chris Getz singled and Gordon delivered a two-run double over the head of center fielder Ryan Langerhans. Billy Butler followed with an RBI single for a 5-0 lead. He added a single in the eighth and came around on Aviles' two-run double off Brandon League.

Tim Collins threw a scoreless sixth for KC, Jeremy Jeffress threw two scoreless innings and Aaron Crow worked a 1-2-3 ninth to preserve the shutout.

In the Seattle third, with Brendan Ryan on second with a double, Suzuki hit a hard grounder up the middle. It looked like an RBI single but Escobar dived to his left, stopped the ball and jumped to his feet to throw out one of the fastest runners in the league. Ryan stopped at third and was stranded when Figgins hit a routine grounder to Escobar.

Cabrera doubled in the second and scored on Aviles' RBI single.

NOTES: Collins gave up a walk and a double but struck out the side in the sixth. ... Figgins practically knocked Jeffress down with a line drive in the seventh that rocketed into the surprised reliever's glove. The rookie reliever struck out Saunders in the eighth with a 100 mph fastball. ... Seattle's Josh Lueke retired the side in the seventh on four pitches. ... Seattle C Miguel Olivo, on an 0-for-25 slump, was out of the Seattle lineup. Suzuki went 0 for 5 against the Royals for only the third time in his career. The previous was May 28, 2003.