They saw this as their opportunity to let the Angels know they were a team to be dealt with, but what happened to the Seattle Mariners in three games in Anaheim?

They got dealt with.

Felix Hernandez couldn’t get the outs he needed most, allowing a pair of three-run home runs. Seattle’s lineup managed 10 hits – but Ben Broussard, Yuniesky Betancourt, Jose Lopez, Ichiro, Jose Vidro, Raul Ibanez and Jose Guillen all came up with runners in scoring position.

And failed.

Hey, it happens, but in the finale of this series, it happened in a

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Five hours before game time Tuesday, Jeff Weaver took the mound in Anaheim and threw a simulated game – three innings against Willie Bloomquist, Jason Ellison and batting practice pitcher John Moses.

The $8.5 million right-hander, on the disabled list with shoulder tendonitis, threw all his pitches and the verdict afterward came down to one word.

‘Better.’

Better location, slightly better velocity. Better breaking pitches, better sinker.

Better than what? Better than Weaver has been in months.

"I caught him his last spring training game in Las Vegas, and he was throwing pretty well then,"

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When their three-game series with the Angels ends, the Seattle Mariners will have 113 games left to the season – although if they lose three in a row here, many will think that season is over.

Even the Seattle players are up for these. Going head to head with the first-place team when you’re the second-place team, it’s hard not to lay more importance on the outcome.

Say what you want about spotty hitting, the Mariners lead the American League with a .279 batting average. Their pitching still has issues, but whose doesn’t? Would you take this staff

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So, you want to know Ichiro Suzuki.

In Saturday’s victory over Kansas City, he pushed his hitting streak to 19 games and made a marvelous running catch before banging his knee into the center field fence.

Asked afterward how his knee was, Ichiro grinned.

"My knee is still my knee," he said. "My knee is not my butt."

You can’t argue with the logic, but did he really answer the question?

The Seattle Mariners are dropping right and left, and the team placed left-handed starting pitcher Horacio Ramirez on the 15-day disabled list Friday – where he joined right-hander Jeff Weaver.

The move follows the loss this week of reliever Chris Reitsma, and the team has been without Raul Ibanez for seven of the last eight games. If you want to go back a bit, the team hasn’t had a pitch thrown from two of his better relievers, Arthur Rhodes and Mark Lowe.

All teams go through injuries and, like the Mariners, do their best to patch the holes

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The question keeps popping up – if the Seattle Mariners fall out of the American League West race, will they trade Ichiro before the July 31 deadline.

Of course, they could.

Almost certainly, they won’t.

Those who watch the game, from fans to scouts, and argue the talents of Ichiro and how he chooses to maximize – or minimize – them on the field. That’s an argument for another day.

What he will want from the Mariners after this season will almost certainly be more than he’d be worth on the open market. The bet here

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Oh, look: Another stretch of make-or-break games upon which jobs are dangling – and this time, the Seattle Mariners simply aren’t playing well.

They couldn’t score enough to keep Felix Hernandez from losing, 2-1.

They flew into Cleveland, got bopped, and flew out again.

Now they’re facing the Devil Rays and Royals before flying into Angels country, and if they don’t make hay in Tampa and Kansas City, they could stumble out of Anaheim a beaten team.

Should that happen, should the Angels continue to pull away in the American League West, it’s likely Mike Hargrove

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Mariners manager Mike Hargrove sat three Seattle regulars on his bench Saturday – one because of heatlh issues, one who needed a mental breather and a third who has developed an affinity for pitches high and out of the strike zone.

Left fielder Raul Ibanez, who missed an earlier game with back spasms, came to Safeco Field with a stiff back. He was replaced in the lineup by Jason Ellison, making his first start as a Mariner.

First baseman Richie Sexson, who had started 37 of the first 38 games for Seattle – and lately been its cleanup

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