And so, with the Mariners and Orioles tied with one out in the eighth inning Wednesday night, and left-hander Nick Markakis coming to bat, McLaren replaced right-handed reliever Sean Green with lefty Ryan Rowland-Smith.

The odds seemingly tipped in Seattle's favor.

After all, Rowland-Smith had held opposing left-handed hitters to a .176 (3-for-17) average this season, allowing one extra-base hit, a double. And Markakis was 4-for-14 against lefties this season with one double and one RBI. He also had struck out seven times in his previous eight at-bats, including twice in the second game of this three-game series.

But the odds did a flip-flop when the first pitch Rowland-Smith threw caught too much of the strike zone and Markakis sent it into the right-field bleachers, sending the Mariners to a 3-2 loss in front of 16,823 at Safeco Field.

"I tried to get ahead of him with a fastball, and it probably was a stupid choice," Rowland-Smith said. "I should have started him out with something else. It was like he was sitting dead-red on a fastball, and no matter what I threw him, he was going to be swinging."

The hurler from Australia was dead right in his thinking.

"I was just looking to swing, first pitch," Markakis said. "I was looking for a good pitch to drive, and it happened to be a good pitch, middle-in, to hit. I put a pretty good swing on it."

The result was his first home run off a left-hander this season and the first loss of the season for Rowland-Smith.

"I learned my lesson, and it won't happen again," he said. "I faced him once in Baltimore and he swung hard, like he was trying to hit one to the moon, and he popped out to left field."

Markakis popped this one out of the park to put Baltimore ahead, and George Sherrill notched his seventh save -- four of them against his former teammates.

The Mariners lost for the first time in three games and dropped back to the .500 mark at 11-11. They received a solid outing from right-hander Carlos Silva, who shut out the Orioles for five innings, surrendered two runs in the sixth inning.

Brian Roberts led off with a single to left field, and he scored on Melvin Mora's triple to right-center, just out of the reach of right fielder Willie Bloomquist. Markakis' infield out scored the tying run.

"I went as far as I could as fast as I could," said Bloomquist, starting in right field in place of Brad Wilkerson, who is nursing a tight hamstring. "I came within six inches or so it, but couldn't get to it. I had a good angle and took a good route to the ball, but couldn't get it."

The Mariners had pretty much stopped hitting and scoring by then against Orioles right-hander Daniel Cabrera.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Seattle had the makings of a rally in the fourth when consecutive singles by Jose Lopez, Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre loaded the bases with nobody out.

A run scored on an infield out, but Richie Sexson lined out softly to third baseman Mora, and Kenji Johjima grounded out the second base. The Mariners managed only two more hits the remainder of the game as Cabrera retired the final 11 batters he faced.

"We had a chance, loading the bases loaded with none out, and got one run," McLaren said. "We needed to get more than one run out of that."

Even so, the two-run lead stood up for a while.

Silva's shutout bid on his 29th birthday lasted as long as it did, thanks to a potential run-scoring double with none out in the fifth inning turning into the first out being made at home plate.

Aubrey Huff and Adam Jones reached on back-to-back singles, putting the tying runs on base. Ramon Hernandez hit a ball to left field that went over Ibanez's head, but the defender came close enough to catching the ball that Huff went back to second to tag.

Ibanez grabbed the ricochet quickly and fired the ball to shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, who turned and nailed Huff at the plate, which was blocked off superbly by Johjima.

The scoring threat ended when Luis Hernandez bounced into a second-to-short-to first double play.

The Mariners scored a run in the first inning for the second straight game. Ichiro Suzuki led off with a single, stole second, advanced to third on an infield out, and scored on Ibanez's sacrifice fly.

Sherrill surrendered a leadoff single to Ibanez in the ninth, but retired the next three batters.