First Inning Is a Barrier for Blyleven : Angels: He gets only one out before leaving, having given up five hits to the first six batters as the Mariners roll, 9-2.

The glare of the TV lights blinded Bert Blyleven for an instant, but he wasn’t blind to the humiliation he brought upon himself Sunday.

“I got my butt kicked today,” he told the camera, “and I’d like to say hello to my mother.”

Blyleven’s mother, his teammates and 14,335 fans at the Kingdome saw him give up two-run home runs to Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner and five hits to the Mariners’ first six batters before he was sent to the sanctuary of the Angel clubhouse after getting only one out.

Blyleven’s shortest appearance in 20 years, coupled with another ineffective performance by the middle relief corps, sentenced the Angels to a 9-2 loss, their fifth on their seven-game trip.

“I didn’t walk anybody today, but maybe I should have,” Blyleven (3-2) said after the briefest start he could recall among the 669 in his career.

“There are times you’re upset you walk guys and times you probably should have,” said Blyleven, who has twice failed to earn his 283rd career victory. “My arm felt good in the bullpen and I felt good out there, but I threw some good pitches and they just whacked them.”

After giving up only six earned runs in his first five starts, Blyleven has yielded 10 runs and 11 hits in his last two starts, covering 5 2/3 innings. That’s an earned-run average of 15.88 in those two starts and an overall ERA of 3.79, up from 1.67 after his 4-1 victory over Texas on June 16.

Despite the numbers, Blyleven said the two outings aren’t a trend and don’t reflect problems with his surgically repaired right shoulder.

“I wish I had the answer,” Blyleven said. “I can retire or I can keep working hard, and I’ve come too far not to work harder. I wish I could say I never got into a groove, but after 17 pitches, I got into their groove. I’d like to say they hit some good pitches, but they must have looked like beach balls coming up there.”

To Kevin Mitchell, he appeared no different than before--and happily so for the Mariner left fielder. Although he has struggled at the plate most of this season, Mitchell had no difficulty lining a double to right-center field to score Ken Griffey Jr. with the Mariners’ third run. Mitchell scored the fourth run when Buhner hit a 1-and-1 pitch to left, the 420th homer Blyleven has yielded and the last hit he would yield Sunday.

“I faced Blyleven in spring training of ’86 and I hit two home runs off him, off a curveball and a changeup,” said Mitchell, who hit a two-run homer against Scott Bailes during the fourth to give the Mariners their last two runs and give Erik Hanson (5-10) ample breathing room. “Blyleven looked the same to me today. You’ve got to give the man a lot of credit. He’s still there.”

Blyleven was there, but his location wasn’t. That made him the first Angel starter this season to fail to get out of the first inning.

“I didn’t see anything wrong when he was warming up, but when we got into the game and got into situations where we needed a certain pitch, he couldn’t put it where we wanted it,” said catcher Ron Tingley, Blyleven’s batterymate in seven of the right-hander’s eight starts this season. “Two starts ago (against Texas), he put it where he wanted to, and in his last start at Minnesota, he had one bad inning, but picked it up after that. That didn’t happen today.

“When we wanted the ball in, he’d throw it down the middle. That’s mechanics, nothing to do with his arm. He has to have the inside part of the plate to make his curveball work for him, and he just didn’t have it today.”

Any chance the Angels had of getting back into the game disappeared during the second and third innings, after they had runners on first and second with none out but couldn’t capitalize. Hanson was hardly invincible--he gave up two runs during the first on a run-scoring double by Von Hayes and a ground out by Gary Gaetti--but he made it through eight innings.

“I thought it was too early in the ballgame to bunt,” Angel interim manager John Wathan said of his decision not to have Tingley sacrifice with runners on first and second during the second or Felix to sacrifice with the same situation during the third. Both hitters struck out.

“With a base hit or two right there, we had a chance to get into the game, but Hanson got stronger as the game went on,” Wathan said.

“I could have gone either way with it, bunt to get one or two runs and get a little closer, but I was trying to get a base hit in that situation, and we didn’t get it.”

That became moot when Joe Grahe, in an unfamiliar long-relief role, gave up a run during the third that put the Mariners ahead, 6-2. Bailes gave up the last three runs, and has given up nine runs in six innings in his last three appearances.

“It gets to where you start going out there expecting bad things to happen,” Bailes said.

Blyleven expects better results from himself. “I’m not happy with my performance at all,” he said. “I’ll just work that much harder. I always have, and I always will.”