Wait 'til next year: Rays officially eliminated after loss

In most regards, the Rays' 4-3 loss to the Mariners on Tuesday night amounted to the same old, same old.

Starting pitcher pitches well, but not well enough. Offense puts some runs on the board but probably should have had more. Bullpen gets some outs but not before giving up a backbreaking run.

"We've played that script before," Manager Joe Maddon said.

The difference this time was that the resulting defeat officially eliminated the defending American League champions from this year's playoff race with 11 games to go.

No one in the home clubhouse was any more downcast than normal because of that final sliver of light fading away, as the ultimate outcome has been a foregone conclusion for some time. But there was perhaps some sense of closure.

"Believe me, it's annoying and it's not the way we wanted this year to end," Maddon said. "We really, even a month ago, were so close to getting over the hump and we just were unable to do so."

Games like this were in large part the reason why, along with simply not being able to measure up. Including this setback to the surging Mariners, the Rays have dropped 15 of their last 18 games against teams with a better record than them.

The home run Jose Lopez hit off Dan Wheeler in the eighth to break a 3-3 tie provided the final margin, but the Rays' best chances to stay alive for another day came earlier.

They scored a run on Seattle starter Ryan Rowland-Smith in the second inning, but ended up leaving the bases loaded with nothing else across. After Jeff Niemann surrendered three runs in the middle innings to give the Mariners a lead, the Rays rallied to tie it in the sixth, driving Rowland-Smith from the game. But they scored only twice despite their first four batters in the inning reaching base.

"We apply a lot of pressure to the end of the game," Maddon said. "But with a couple well-timed hits, we could have had a different outcome tonight."

Niemann left with a lead or the score tied for the fourth time in his last five outings, but he hasn't picked up a victory since Aug. 24 against Toronto and remains stuck on a 12-6 record with two starts left.

All three runs he allowed in 6 2/3 innings scored with two outs, most notably Ichiro Suzuki's first-pitch, two-run homer in the fifth. Niemann was hardly at his sharpest, hitting a batter and walking four to tie his season high, but he gave his team a chance.

They just couldn't follow through, as has become routine lately. B.J. Upton's pair of RBI singles could have used some help, and the only runner the Rays put on base after Upton's hit with nobody out in the sixth was Carl Crawford, who led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk. Two pop-ups followed, and Evan Longoria couldn't check his swing on strike three to end it.

Really end it.

"It would have taken a minor miracle, I guess," Wheeler said. "Or a major one, at that. But it's over with, so I guess we just go on and look forward to 2010."