THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: This isn't going to last long ... is it?

The Mariners are going to hit.

Right?

Right???

Well, career resumes suggest that’s going to happen, at least enough to help out a dominant pitching staff.

So far, though …

Nope.

Frustrated boss Scott Servais shuffled the lineup Wednesday afternoon, moving J.P. Crawford into the leadoff role and dropping Julio Rodriguez to the No. 6 spot — just ahead of Teoscar Hernandez at No. 7.

Servais admitted each of the two previous days that the limp offense, and especially a team full of guys swinging at bad pitches, was getting to him.

He wasn’t exactly rewarded in this final installment of a three-game set against Texas, either, as the Rangers basically parlayed one good inning against Luis Castillo into a 4-3 victory — during which the Mariners looked a lot like the toothless bunch they’ve been en route to an 18-19 record.

They’ve been flirting with .500 through the first five weeks of the season almost entirely on the strength of the pitching staff — and Jarred Kelenic, who had two more hits in the series finale, including a two-out, RBI triple in the eighth that pulled Seattle within a run.

AH, BUT then the sad script played out again, as Cal Raleigh struck out on a middle-middle fastball to end that inning with two on — and 34-year-old, soft-tossing lefty Will Smith once again retired the Mariners quickly and a bit pathetically in the ninth.

Smith saved 37 games for the World Series champion Braves in 2021, and he’s still useful because he knows how to let hitters get themselves out.

In Texas’ 2-1 victory on Monday, Smith struck out the side — including Rodriguez and Hernandez —throwing exclusively 82 mph curveballs that started waist-high and then wandered down to the dirt.

Julio and Teo kept flailing at them, and missing by plenty.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy is a wise old owl, and he was savvy enough to bring Smith on Wednesday to protect that 4-3 lead in the ninth — with Rodriguez and Hernandez the first two hitters to face him.

You’d assume they had watched video of all those curves near their shoes, and would make Smith throw them strikes this time.

Actually, he did, one to each hitter — chucking sliders in for easy strikes on the first pitch.

After that, it was Dirt City.

And yeah, they both swung out of their belt buckles and disturbed nothing but the air flow around some fluttering hot dog wrappers.

AJ Pollock was the last out of the game, and he became the first Seattle hitter to hit a fair ball off Smith in this series — a routine grounder to third that sent 22,480 customers home wondering when/if they’d ever see a Mariner offensive outburst.

Rodriguez, who is now hitting .205 with an OPS of .654, at least hit a couple of balls reasonably hard on Wednesday.

Hernandez did not, striking out three times to see his own average slip to .215.

With Raleigh at .212 and Eugenio Suarez sitting at .221 (all in the middle of the lineup), there are a lot of dry spells in there.

Just for good measure, newcomers Pollock (.138) and Kolten Wong (.195) haven’t added much, either, although Pollock delivered late home runs on back-to-back nights last week to fuel comeback wins over Houston.

That production qualified as a scorching streak for these scuffling Mariners — and the whole, long, frustrating slump is wasting a lot of good pitching.

Texas is leading MLB in runs scored, yet M’s pitchers allowed just six runs in this series – and they still lost two of three.

SERVAIS isn’t known for throwing his players under the bus — just the opposite, in fact — and yet his frustration slipped out on Tuesday.

“At certain times, we are too easy to pitch to, if I’m being frank about it,” Servais said.

Which means?

“I think any team in the league is easy to pitch to when they are swinging at balls just on the edge or off the edge.

“It makes anybody easy to pitch to. Getting to where we need to be, we need to get back to pitches over the middle of plate and be OK with taking a lot of edge pitches.

“Any time you don’t swing at strikes, you are easier to pitch to. We’re swinging a little too much, in my opinion.

“They’re not coming to us. We’re trying to go get them. It’s a tough way to have success in this league.”

Naturally, the failure of J-Rod to have much impact has been a huge and disappointing surprise.

“The numbers don’t lie,” Servais said. “They don’t. Julio is chasing more of the pitches that are off the plate.

“It’s why his walk rate is down. Julio is so gifted. He’s putting those balls in play. I wish he’d swing and miss at those pitches.

“That’s what is leading to his struggles at times. It comes back to getting the ball over the middle of the plate. The numbers don’t lie. They are there for a reason. It’s the reason we look at them.”

On Wednesday, after Rodriguez got one hit and scored a run, Servais insisted that his star center fielder will wind up right where he should be at the end of the season.

Meantime, though, the Mariners are missing a lot of critical hits.

They’re 4-11 in one-run games.

“We need to turn that around,” Servais said. “A few runs in big spots would help change a lot.”

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”