"When something like that happens to you, you go beyond anger," Ichiro said on Friday night in a quiet visitors' clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, where the Mariners sustained a 13-2 defeat from the Yankees in front of 52,005.

The fourth straight loss on a two-city, six-game road trip, sent Seattle (18-31) deeper into the American League West basement.

They have been outscored, 43-16, on this trip, and the season is crumbling around them faster than a New York minute.

"Playing on this team, and seeing what's happening around me, I feel like something is beginning to fall apart," Ichiro said. "If I was not in the situation, and I was objectively watching what had happened to this team in the last week, I'd probably be drinking a lot of beers and booing."

The Mariners have lost nine one-run games this season, but the past four defeats have been lopsided.

"We are still having the same problem, pitching problems, a lot of pitching problems," manager John McLaren said. "There usually is a big, crooked number in our struggles the past week."

The latest "crooked number" was an eight -- the number of runs the Yankees scored in the fifth inning to seal the deal and make it easy for left-hander Andy Pettitte to pick up his 205th Major League victory.

McLaren watched on television in the clubhouse as Mariners left-handed starter Erik Bedard unraveled in the inning.

The manager was ejected in the second of the series opener for getting into an argument with home-plate umpire Mike DiMuro after Ichiro had been called out on strikes for the second time.

McLaren could not recall seeing Ichiro get called out on strikes in two consecutive at-bats, and it was only the second time this season that the seven-time All-Star struck out in back-to-back at-bats.

"I am sure it has happened, but I have never seen him argue with umpires two at-bats in a row," McLaren said. "I can't remember it happening two at-bats in one game."

Ichiro went 0-for-4, ending his six-game hitting streak, but he wouldn't count the two called strikeouts as at-bats.

"If you consider those at-bats strikeouts, then what you say [0-for-4] is true," Ichiro said. "They were non-existent to me."

Ichiro so rarely argues with umpires that it was strange to see him argue for as long as he did, especially the second time on a pitch that he was certain missed the inside corner of the plate.

"At the end of the day, I didn't get thrown out of the game," he said through his interpreter, Ken Baron. "So for me, when emotion takes over, I start thinking about what it would mean the following day. My brain at the end of the day takes over my emotions, even in those situations to make those decisions for me, rather than just my emotions."

Translated, that means a cooler head prevailed.

In any language, words alone do not describe what the Mariners are going through this month.

They play, they lose, sometimes by wide margins, shake their heads in utter amazement, take a shower, get dressed into their civilian clothes, do whatever they do away from the ballpark and return for more the next day.

Perhaps Ichiro had a beer.

"Usually, I enjoy Japanese beer, but given the situation, I wouldn't care if it was Japanese beer, American beer or beer from Papua New Guinea," he said.

Bedard, who feels more comfortable pitching to backup catcher Jamie Burke than Kenji Johjima, surrendered eight hits and nine runs in 4 1/3 innings.

The Mariners' starters have allowed 29 earned runs in 14 2/3 innings on this road trip.

"It looked like Bedard had real good stuff, but he gave up a three-run home run to [Shelley] Duncan and things started getting ugly after that," McLaren said.

Duncan's three-run shot into the left-field bleachers came on the second pitch that he got from Bedard (3-3, 4.70 ERA) in the second inning. After retiring the Yankees in order in the first inning, striking out the last two batters, Bedard yielded a leadoff single to Hideki Matsui and walked Jason Giambi on five pitches.

Duncan followed with his first home run of the season.

"It wasn't a bad pitch," Bedard said.

But it was a bad game for the Mariners in a string of tough games.

"This is a difficult time," McLaren said. "It's ugly, extremely ugly and very frustrating. If you don't feel the hurt, you are not a competitor."

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.