Expectations set at the beginning of the season were realized by an 88-win season. Expectations recalculated by a 73-53 record on Aug. 24 were not met.

Explaining just how the Mariners got to 20 over is as difficult as explaining how they went on a nine-game losing streak that set up a 15-21 fade to the finish.

Team ERA after the Aug. 24 win in Texas was 4.59. By

season's end, it was 4.73.

Poor pitching, more than anything else, was enough to deny the Mariners the postseason berth they so badly wanted.

Where did it all go wrong? Well, maybe it didn't all go wrong. Maybe this team, even with its raised expectations dashed, did as well as it could.

Eighty-eight wins would have earned a playoff berth if the Mariners were in the National League Central, but the Mariners play in the real world, and the AL West was won by the Angels.

The Angels were the biggest problem all season. The teams played each other 19 times. The Angels won 12 of the first 16. By the time the Mariners won two in a row Sept. 21-22, they were no longer postseason contenders.

"We have to find a way to beat those guys," manager John McLaren said. "The Angels have a great ballclub. They did a number on us."

The Mariners also did a number on themselves when playing the Angels. In six of their 13 losses, they gave up two or more runs in the first inning. In another loss, they gave up four runs in the second inning. In another, they scored five runs in the first and managed to lose by four.

John Lackey shut them out for 24 consecutive innings. Vladimir Guerrero hit .466 with six homers and an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of 1.317. Garret Anderson hit just .291 but had almost as many RBIs against Seattle (15) as Guerrero (20).

The Angels won 94 games, but they didn't handle anybody like they handled the Mariners.

Aside from their struggles with the Angels, the Mariners did well. They were .500 or better against eight of the other 12 AL teams, and one game under .500 against two others, Toronto and Cleveland. The Twins (3-6) and the Angels (6-13) were the only opponents to give them fits.

"The first thing the Angels did was beat us as much as they did," McLaren said. "They also beat the National League (14 of 18). Those two numbers made quite a gap between them and us."

The biggest midseason disruption for the Mariners was the July 1 resignation of manager Mike Hargrove. McLaren took over the next day.

Hargrove's exit seemed odd because the Mariners had won seven consecutive games, and would win a season-best eighth that day. But he has said he's happier since resigning.

The Mariners lost three of their next four, righted the ship for a bit, then lost seven consecutive games from Aug. 21-26.

While that eclipsed two earlier six-game losing streaks, it was nothing compared with the nine-game skid that started the day after the Mariners got to 20 games over .500 for the first time since 2003.

"In my 21 years in the major leagues, I never saw so many teams go through so many streaks, good and bad," McLaren said. "And we were the streakiest team of all."

After losing six in a row in April, they came back by winning seven of their next eight. After losing another half-dozen in June, they won 10 of their next 11. The seven-game skid in July was followed by six wins in the next seven games, quickly reclaiming almost all the ground they lost.

But there was no recovering from the nine-game streak. If there had been, the Mariners would be playing Wednesday. After losing nine, the Mariners won one, lost six of the next seven and were essentially done.

"We bounced back," left fielder Raul Ibanez said. "It seemed like we always did. But the last (losing streak) took a lot out of all of us. We never quit. But by the time we turned it around, we'd lost too much ground."

Seattle won 13 of its final 19, which made the record look better than it should have.

The Mariners finished 14 games over .500 despite being outscored by 19 runs. Run differential is a good evaluator of team strength -- the four AL playoff teams scored 91 or more runs than their opponents, and the two AL East representatives, Boston and New York, were each over 200.

Much of the run differential can be blamed on the starting rotation, particularly Jeff Weaver's terrible first six starts -- opponents scored 54 runs -- and Horacio Ramirez's inconsistency.

Ramirez is the face of the Mariners' ability to win games without pitching well. The lefty, who was removed from the starting rotation down the stretch, had a winning record (8-7) despite a 7.16 ERA.

Of AL starting pitchers with 96 or more innings, Ramirez had the worst ERA. Weaver's 6.20 was second worst.

But it wasn't just those two. Jarrod Washburn was 8-6 at the All-Star break and 2-9 after it, his ERA rising from 3.72 to 4.32. Felix Hernandez might have returned too soon from an April arm injury; he couldn't control his pitches and dominate. He gave up four hits in 17 innings before the injury and 205 hits in 173 innings after. Miguel Batista had a career-best 16 wins, but gave up six or more runs six times.

The starters averaged 5 2/3 innings per game, fourth-worst in the AL, putting a greater burden on the bullpen. For most of the year, inexperienced relievers Sean Green, Brandon Morrow, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Eric O'Flaherty and George Sherrill did a good job setting up closer J.J. Putz. In the final weeks of the season, however, the bullpen collapsed. On Aug. 24 the bullpen's ERA was 3.67. For the final stretch, it was 4.86.

The relievers tired under the workload, and general manager Bill Bavasi failed to pick up a reliever at the trade deadline. It didn't help that Arthur Rhodes never pitched because of ligament damage in his elbow; or that Mark Lowe never really came back from elbow surgery; or that Julio Mateo was arrested in New York in May, charged with third-degree assault, and never pitched for Seattle again; or that Chris Reitsma, a one-time closer for Atlanta, had three stints on the DL with elbow problems.

The offense rang up a ton of hits -- the Mariners were one of just three AL teams with 1,600 or more hits. But because of the inability to work the count -- Seattle was the only AL team with fewer than 400 walks -- the team's on-base percentage and runs total were only average, seventh in both cases.

It might have been different if first baseman Richie Sexson had any kind of ordinary year. Instead, he had the worst year of his career, hitting .205 with 21 home runs and a .295 on-base percentage, before hamstring troubles ended his season in late August.

McLaren stuck with Sexson and another first-half slumper, Ibanez, all the way. Ibanez responded with a strong final six weeks and led the team in RBIs with 107.

Ichiro Suzuki had one of the best years of his career, finishing with a .351 average that was second in the AL. More significantly, he had more fun this time around, which meant his teammates had more fun, too. He finished with 111 runs; only once has he done better. And he has a five-year contract extension, too.

Newcomers Jose Vidro (.314) and Jose Guillen (.290, 23 homers, 99 RBIs) met or exceeded expectations. Third baseman Adrian Beltre played some great defense, but also made 18 errors. While he led the team with 26 homers and tied Guillen for second with 99 RBIs, Beltre struggled at times, batting .276.

Catcher Kenji Johjima's numbers were down slightly from his 2006 debut, but overall it was a better year for Johjima, whose pitch-calling, catching and ability to throw runners out blossomed.

Up the middle, shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and second baseman Jose Lopez weren't quite up to expectations. Betancourt had 19 errors by midseason before turning his game around. Lopez had another good start, but was never the same player after learning in June that his brother had died. McLaren benched him a couple of times to try to get his focus back.

As for team-wide focus, McLaren said the emphasis during exhibition games this past spring was on beating the A's after Oakland went 17-2 against Seattle in 2006. That focus worked -- the Mariners took 14 of 19 from Oakland in '07.

"We're going to do that same thing with the Angels next spring," McLaren said. "We've got to find a way to beat those guys."

SEVEN AND OUT

The Mariners finished six games out of first place in the American League West. Victories in these seven games could have catapulted them past the Angels and into the postseason:

April 18 vs. Minnesota: Minnesota 5, Seattle 4 -- It wasn�t so much that the Mariners lost this one, it was that starter Felix Hernandez, who hadn�t allowed a run in his first two starts, came down with a strained right forearm in the first inning. He then spend almost four weeks on the disabled list, and he wasn't routinely effective again until the final six weeks of the season.

April 21 at Los Angeles: LA Angels 7, Settle 6 -- This was a microcosm of the Mariners-Angels season series. The Angels jumped on Horacio Ramirez for six runs in four-plus innings, and Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-run homer for Los Angeles. The Mariners scratched out a run in the seventh, then beat up on relievers Darren Oliver and Scot Shields for five runs in the eighth, including a pinch-hit grand slam by Ben Broussard, to fall a run short.

May 29 at Los Angeles: LA Angels 4, Settle 1 -- The Mariners came in riding a four-game winning streak and were just 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Angels. The Mariners scored in the first inning and had the bases loaded with one out against struggling starter Ervin Santana with a chance to blow open the game. But Kenji Johjima hit into a double play and the Mariners only got four singles -� and no runs -� the rest of the night.

June 13 at Chicago: Chicago Cubs 3, Seattle 2 -- The Mariners had put together a nice streak, winning nine of 10, and had a chance to get to 10 games over .500 for the first time in 2007. The score was tied 1-1 in the fifth when a two-out throwing error by Yuniesky Betancourt extended the inning, and the Cubs scored two runs to take command. The Mariners wouldn�t get to 10 games over .500 until June 29.

Aug. 25 at Texas: Texas 5, Seattle 3 -- Ian Kinsler hit a game-tying three-run homer in the fifth, one pitch after Adrian Beltre's throwing error on a play that would have ended the inning, and then took the lead for good in the seventh after Beltre fielded Kinsler's slow roller and threw the ball into right field, allowing Travis Metcalf to score. The Mariners, 19-7 in their previous 26 games, proceeded to lose nine in a row.

Aug. 30 at Toronto: Toronto 6, Seattle 5 -- Having lost five in a row, the Mariners rallied to take a 4-3 lead, but a tiring bullpen gave a 5-4 lead back to the Blue Jays in the seventh. The Mariners manufactured a run in the ninth to tie it, but newly acquired reliever Rick White walked back-to-back batters, forcing in the winning run with the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning.

Sept. 5 at New York: NY Yankees 10, Seattle 2 -- The Mariners had a chance to reclaim the lead in the wild card race with a victory at Yankee Stadium. They took a 2-0 lead on a two-run homer by Raul Ibanez in the third and nursed a 2-1 lead into the seventh. But then starter Jarrod Washburn and the ever-tiring bullpen of George Sherrill, Sean Green, Eric O�Flaherty, Brandon Morrow and Rick White combined to give the Yankees eight runs and the victory. The Mariners never again led the wild card race.

P-I reporter John Hickey can be reached at 206-448-8004 or johnhickey@seattlepi.com. Follow his Mariners blog at blog.seattlepi.com/baseball.

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