Notebook: This week could be it for Ibanez as a Mariner

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Mariners' final homestand of the season begins Monday. Will it be the final time Raul Ibanez calls Safeco Field home?

Logic and baseball history says it probably will be.

Ibanez, who will be a free agent this winter, doesn't want to think in such terms. But the Mariners, owners of the worst record in baseball despite a $121 million payroll, almost certainly aren't going to win next year.

Ibanez, 36, will probably be signing his last multi-year contract. It will be his final chance to play for a winner. After three consecutive seasons of 100-plus RBIs, he is going to get good money. But the perk of playing for a contender in 2009 is something the Mariners can't offer.

"I'm not thinking about that," Ibanez said Sunday. "All I want to do is finish the season strong. You need to discipline yourself not to think about things like that.

"I know that if I was thinking about next year and what might happen, then I wouldn't be doing what I needed to do to do the best job I can. I can't be good at what I do without that kind of focus."

It's that kind of approach that has made Ibanez the Mariners' leading run producer the past few seasons. He didn't have that kind of mindset when he broke into the big leagues in 1996.

"It's hard to develop an attitude like that," he said, "especially when you're younger. But as I've played the game, I've learned to minimize everything and to simplify. It's a choice to discipline yourself to make everything smaller, to slow everything in the game down."

Sunday's game was a tough one for Ibanez, who struck out all four times he came to the plate as his average declined to .302.

That kind of game has been rare, though. Ibanez was close to being the AL's best hitter in August, when he drove in 31 runs and pushed his batting average over .310. Although September has seen his numbers fall back, he'll probably finish with the second-best home run and RBI totals of his career, having 23 and 106 coming into Monday's game.

The Mariners would be hard-pressed to replace Ibanez's left-handed bat and can be expected to try to make a play to keep him. And while Ibanez likes playing for the Mariners and living each summer in Seattle, he's made it to the postseason only once (2000 with Seattle), and never to the World Series. If that dream still burns, he will have to warm to it in another locale.

STILL FALLING: With 11 consecutive losses on the road trip, the Mariners are approaching some numbers for futility that are simply scary, starting with the fact they are 41 games under .500 for the first time this year.

They have to go 6-1 in the final week to avoid 100 losses, and the club record of 104 losses isn't out of the question.

And with an Angels victory Sunday, the Mariners are 39 games out of first place.

Seattle has had some awful performances, particularly in the first decade after the team was formed in 1977, but no Mariners team has ever been 40 games out of first place. The worst games-behind mark in club history is 39 1/2 , on Sept. 25, 1977.

Overall, the team has lost 13 consecutive road games, the ninth time in club history the Mariners have lost 10 or more games in succession on the road.

MAGIC STICKS: After Bryan LaHair was finished talking to the media Saturday in the wake of a performance that saw him walk three times and hit a two-run homer, fellow rookie Wladimir Balentien came up to him.

"Did you tell them about the magic?" Balentien asked.

The magic came from a bat borrowed earlier in the week from Balentien.

"I didn't feel I was that far away with my swing, but I was looking for another bat," LaHair said. "I wanted to try his out, and it seems just right. I hit the homer with one of his bats, and I've already put in an order of his model for myself."

The Mariners will need power from their first baseman next year, whoever it is, and LaHair needs to show he can provide it.

He hit 22 homers in Class A in 2005, but just 12 last year for Triple-A Tacoma and another dozen for the Rainiers this year before getting three for the Mariners.

"I've always tried to be a gap hitter," LaHair said. "Every year I come in thinking I'm going to hit 50 doubles. I've never made it yet, but it's my goal, and I've come close (46 last year with Tacoma). That comes from hitting the ball hard. And if I do sustain that, at some point the ball is going to fly out of the park."

NOTES: Miguel Batista's blown save Sunday was the 31st of the season for Seattle. It's a club record and the most in the big leagues this year; St. Louis has 30. ... The Mariners say Carlos Silva's start Thursday against the Angels is uncertain. Silva continues to battle back problems.