Unfriendly confines

CHICAGO (AP) - The Seattle Mariners just don't like playing in Chicago.

With its 5-1 loss to the White Sox on Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field, Seattle has dropped 10 straight games in the Windy City and 14 of its last 15 there.

"Different ballpark, but same game," Mariners first baseman Justin Smoak said about the struggles in Chicago. "I guess it's just a coincidence. Other than that, nothing different."

It's not that Seattle wasn't rolling coming into Chicago. The Mariners hadn't lost two straight in almost a month - they had a six-game losing streak May 7-13 - and had won six straight series until meeting their nemesis on the road.

But, they've dropped the first two with only tonight's game remaining in the series.

"Try not to let a couple of nights here ruin what we've been doing," Mariners second baseman Adam Kennedy said.

"I didn't think we were very good at all today," Mariners manager Eric Wedge added. "I wasn't pleased with much of anything."

With the temperature reaching 93 degrees at the game's first pitch, Mariners starter Felix Hernandez (6-5) just didn't have it early, allowing five runs on eight hits in 6 2/3 innings, with five strikeouts and two walks in his 114-pitch outing. Hernandez entered with an AL-high 92 strikeouts.

Although the wind was blowing out to left field, that didn't figure into the two homers allowed by Hernandez.

Paul Konerko led off the second with a long drive to the left-field bleachers. In the third, Carlos Quentin capped a four-run surge with a liner off the left-field foul poll. Omar Vizquel plated the inning's other two runs with a triple down the right-field line.

"I made two mistakes that changed the game," Hernandez said. "Vizquel and the homer to Quentin on a sinker. It just came back to the middle of the plate."

Hernandez allowed eight hits in the first five innings, the second most hits he's allowed this season (12 vs. Toronto, April 11). He defeated Chicago back on May 6, 3-2 in a five-hitter. But that was in Seattle.

"You cannot make mistakes in this ballpark," Hernandez said.

Trailing 5-0 in the fourth against White Sox right-hander Phil Humber (5-3), Kennedy worked out a one-out walk and reached third on a single to right field by Luis Rodriguez. Miguel Olivo then lofted a fly to medium left that Juan Pierre caught and threw home just missing Kennedy at the plate. The ball skipped past catcher A.J. Pierzynski just as Kennedy slid home. The RBI was Olivo's 15th in his last 17 games.

But as has been the case throughout the season, Seattle found it tough to score. The Mariners entered the game tied for last in runs scored in the A.L. with Minnesota and Oakland (221), but moved past both after each were shut out tonight.

Seattle managed just three singles after the fourth, as Humber retired 10 straight batters in the middle innings.

The Mariners had a chance to take an early lead when Luis Rodriguez hit a one out double in the first inning. He went to third on a wild pitch, but Smoak struck out on a 3-2 pitch in the dirt and Jack Cust lined out to second.

"First inning, I was up with a man on third base and one out. You've got to get that guy in," Smoak said. "I swung at ball four and struck out. No excuses for that."

The only other Seattle scoring threat came in the seventh. With two outs, Chone Figgins and Carlos Peguero had back-to-back singles. But Ichiro Suzuki grounded out to Vizquel at short. Suzuki went 0 for 4 and has eight hits in his last 59 at-bats (.136).

"I didn't feel like we put up very good at-bats," Wedge said. "People we're counting on need to do better."