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Freddy Garcia struggled but kept the Mariners in the game at Anaheim. (Chris Carlson/AP)

They had runners on second and third bases in the ninth inning, nobody out in a tie game, and three of the most productive batters coming to bat, one after the other.

John Olerud, Edgar Martinez and Bret Boone have 4,058 RBIs among them. One more would have given the Mariners the lead and allowed closer Eddie Guardado his first chance to register a save for his new team.

But in keeping with the way the season has gone so far, none of them could drive in that run. Instead, a single, two stolen bases and sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning gave the Angels a 6-5 victory before 42,888 at Angel Stadium.

Olerud popped out into shallow left field. Martinez fouled out between home plate and third base. And Boone flied out to right field to erase what surely looked like a replay of the only game they've won this season -- a come-from-behind-late victory in Oakland.

Manager Bob Melvin restructured his lineup, moving Olerud into the second spot behind Ichiro, flip-flopped Martinez and Boone in the batting order and dropped Raul Ibanez and Randy Winn a few spots.

The new look looked awfully good in the ninth inning when Dave Hansen singled off Angels closer Troy Percival, as did pinch-hitter Dan Wilson after twice failing to bunt pinch runner Willie Bloomquist to second.

Ichiro rattled the fence in right-center field, missing by a few feet of hitting his first home run, settling instead for a double that scored Bloomquist and sent Wilson to third.

Three outs later, the runners were still standing on second and third bases.

"With our 2-3-4 hitters, all contact guys, you expect them to put the ball in play," Melvin said. "It didn't happen and it's a microcosm of the way things have been going."

Olerud, who has 1,147 career RBIs, but only two this season, spent more than half-hour after the game watching video replays of his final at-bat to see what went wrong.

Martinez didn't need to see the tape.

"No excuses," he said. "I didn't do the job. I should have looked for a pitch I could handle, but I swung at a pitch way out of the strike zone."

Martinez has 2,002 career RBIs so he knows how to drive in runners.

"The way I was thinking was just try to hit a ball back up the middle," he said. "They had the infield in and a fly ball gets the (go-ahead) run in. The main thing was to make contact and see what happens."

The hard-throwing Percival fired a high fastball. Martinez swung at it and popped it straight up in the air, coming down in the waiting glove on third baseman Shane Halter's left hand.

"I think he tried to elevate the ball," Edgar said. "My job was to make him come down into the strike zone and I didn't do that."

Meanwhile, Guardado's first save opportunity has been put on hold.

Two innings earlier, the Mariners seemingly had one of those "turn-it-around" moments that a struggling team needs.

They were behind by a run and the Angels had the bases loaded with none out.

Then it was a bases-loaded, one-out jam.

And then the inning was over with no runs scoring as left fielder Ibanez and catcher Ben Davis collaborated on a catch-and-throw double play that elicited some high-charged emotions in and around the visiting dugout.

"That was huge for us, the type of thing that can turns things around," Melvin said. "You try to build on that and create momentum, but it just didn't work out in the end."

The Angels won it in the bottom of the ninth when Shigetoshi Hasegawa walked Vladimir Guerrero, pinch runner Chone Figgins stole second while lefty Mike Myers was striking out Garret Anderson. Figgins stole third while Julio Mateo pitched to Jose Guillen, and scored on Jeff DaVanon's one-out sacrifice fly to right field.

Seattle is now 1-7 this season and stuck in the AL West cellar.

First-year general manager Bill Bavasi has watched the Mariners struggle coming out of the starting gate, but refrains from putting any of his fingers on the panic button.

"Everyone wants to get off to a good start and it's disappointing," he said prior to Wednesday's game. "I don't know these guys all that well, but am confident that no one is more disturbed by the record than the players.

"None of us are going to panic, but we are going to be angry and real disturbed and look at things a lot more closely. We're not going to have panic set in, but we have to keep plugging away."

The three-game series ends Thursday night with right-hander Ryan Franklin (0-0, 7.20) opposing Angels right-hander John Lackey (0-1, 17.18).

Jim Street is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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