MARINERS

The slide continues. And you have to wonder, as it reaches six games, if Mike Hargrove's seat is getting hotter.

Probably, but don't expect anything to happen until the Reds leave town after Sunday's game. This weekend is a planned celebration of Junior's return, and no management team in their right mind would want to screw that up. … Uh oh. That's means the M's will probably fire Hargrove and Bill Bavasi on Friday morning.

Just kidding.

But Tuesday's 5-3 loss to the Pirates couldn't have done anything to help Hargrove's case. Neither did his decision not to meet with the media after the game. You don't want to tick off guys with deadlines.

No worries, though. Jeff Weaver, he of the 0-6 record and the 10.97 ERA (an improvement actually), is going tonight (7:05; FSN; 920-AM). That should be enough to snap the season's longest losing streak.

Today's hot list …

• The big meeting among the M's braintrust after the game seemed to be the lead of the game stories in the News Tribune, the P-I, Times and the Herald. If you want the view from Pittsburgh, here is the Post-Gazette story and the Tribune-Review piece.

• Former NIC and GU star Jason Bay made his homecoming to the Northwest on Tuesday, and it is home. Bay spends his off-season in Kirkland now.

• He doesn't care where, but Ben Broussard wants to bring his bat and play.

• Part of the problem lately for the M's has been the wildness of eighth-inning setup guy Brandon Morrow. He's working on it.

• There is some hope on the pitching front. Horacio Ramirez and Mark Lowe threw bullpens before Tuesday's game. Neither was willing to set a timetable on their return, however. Adrian Beltre, heavily taped, was back at third base though.

• And our question of the day …

• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the hottest, how warm right now is the seat Mike Hargrove is sitting on?

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