Offensive surge carries Mariners past Dodgers

As everyone speculates about how the Dodgers will perform when Manny Ramirez returns this week, there’s the more pressing concern about the Dodgers’ play right now.

Despite clinging to the major leagues’ best record, the Dodgers have lost four of five games and, for the first time this season, they’ve lost consecutive series.

And the team’s slowdown, capped by a 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, could get worse before it gets better.

The Colorado Rockies, having won 20 of 23 games, arrive at Chavez Ravine tonight.

“They’re the hottest team in baseball,” Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said of the Rockies. “We played them early and we had good luck with them. Tomorrow night we start from scratch and go out here and try to right our ship. The best way to do that is to come out and control the game pitching-wise.”

The Mariners won Sunday with a three-run third inning against starter Hiroki Kuroda (2-4) in front of 49,355 on a 90-degree day.

“It was just that one inning,” Kuroda said through an interpreter.

“Some balls stayed up and I allowed some hits and the momentum went their way.”

Kuroda had his first showdown with fellow Japanese player Ichiro Suzuki, the major leagues’ top hitter at .372, and Suzuki got the upper hand.

With Seattle holding a 1-0 lead, Suzuki and Russell Branyan singled in the third inning.

Adrian Beltre followed with another single to drive home Suzuki, and Jose Lopez doubled over Matt Kemp’s head in center field to drive in Branyan and Beltre and give the Mariners a 4-0 lead.

It was Beltre’s final game before he undergoes shoulder surgery. He’s expected to be out about two months.

The Dodgers got their runs in the fifth inning against starter Garrett Olson (3-2). Kemp hit a home run, and Juan Castro singled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Andre Ethier.

Referring to Suzuki, Kuroda said “it was really hard to get him out” but that, despite the damage in the third inning, Kuroda was “pretty much satisfied” to hold Suzuki to one hit.

Kuroda pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up eight hits. But he also extended his streak of not walking a batter to 26 1/3 innings.

The Dodgers finished with a 9-9 record in games against the American League this season.

“The fact of the matter is when you have a 162-game season, you’re going to go through some spots, like we’ve lost four out of five,” Torre said.

“The fact that you win the first game of the series and lose the next two is something that’s unusual and we’ve done that now two series in a row.”

Despite Colorado’s surge, the team remains in third place in the NL West, 7 1/2 games behind the Dodgers. The second-place San Francisco Giants are seven games back.

Asked about any growing concern on the Dodgers, Torre said “I’m not really concerned about our psyche. We’ve been tested a lot here in the early going.”

But, he added, “we need to go out and shut somebody down.”

Catcher Russell Martin agreed. Saying Colorado’s recent record “doesn’t matter,” he said the Dodgers’ skid was “nothing to be too worried about. We’ve just got to put this behind us.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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DODGERS TONIGHT

VS. COLORADO

When: 7.

Where: Dodger Stadium.

On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio 790, 930.

Pitchers: Randy Wolf vs. Ubaldo Jimenez; Tuesday, 7 p.m. -- Chad Billingsley (9-3, 3.10) vs. Jason Marquis (9-5, 4.22); Wednesday, noon -- Clayton Kershaw (5-5, 3.70) vs. Jason Hammel (5-3, 4.21).

Update: Wolf is trying to bounce back from a poor outing Wednesday, when he gave up five runs in 3 1/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 10-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox. Jimenez is 0-3 with a 10.20 earned-run average against the Dodgers this season.

-- Jim Peltz