(Photo credit: Scott Marshall-Imagn Images)

The Seattle Mariners hoped a trip to Southern California and Texas might heat up their bats.

It didn't happen.

The Mariners, considered the favorites in the American League West by most preseason prognosticators, return home Friday for a four-game series with the Houston Astros in the division cellar with a 4-9 record and sporting a five-game losing streak.

The reason?

The Mariners are batting .184, the worst mark in Major League Baseball (the Los Angeles Angels are 29th at .201). They're also last in on-base percentage (.280) and slugging percentage (.301).

'Just not much going on offensively,' Mariners manager Dan Wilson said after a 3-0 loss Wednesday at Texas. 'We were able to get a little bit of traffic, but we were not able to move it along. Not enough consistency on the offensive side.

'We've got some work to do, there's no doubt about it,' Wilson said.

The Mariners (.581) are the only team with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage below .600.

'You're going to go through lulls like this,' said third baseman Brendan Donovan, who has a team-leading .316 batting average. 'Unfortunately, we're just getting hit with some adversity at the beginning. ... Personally, I'd rather us go through it now, see what we're made of, establish our identity, and then go from there.'

The Mariners scored 13 runs on their just-concluded trip, with seven of those coming in an extra-inning loss to the Angels, and were shut out twice. They scored two or fewer runs in four of those games.

Seattle is wasting an outstanding start to the season by its pitching staff, which has a 2.62 ERA, third-best in MLB behind Atlanta (2.03) and the New York Yankees (2.35).

The Astros aren't faring much better, though for different reasons. They've lost four in a row after being swept in a three-game series at Colorado and have allowed 35 runs in that span.

Houston's 6.05 team ERA ranks ahead of only Washington (6.06).

Ace Hunter Brown was placed on the injured list Tuesday with a right-shoulder strain and fellow right-hander Cristian Javier left Wednesday's 9-1 loss to the Rockies with shoulder tightness.

Javier exited shortly after center fielder Jake Meyers came out of the game midway through a plate appearance with lower back tightness.

'It's not what I want to see, man,' Astros manager Joe Espada said. 'It's just hard.

'We've just got to flush this and you've got to get ready to play ball. I trust these guys. They know how to do it. The injuries (have) piled on, and it's not a good feeling. But if there's a team that knows how to bounce back, it's this group in here.'

Friday's series opener is scheduled to feature a matchup of right-handers in Houston's Tatsuya Imai (1-0, 4.32) and Seattle's Emerson Hancock (1-1, 0.71).

Imai, signed as a free agent in the offseason from Japan, will be facing the Mariners for the first time. He pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings in an 11-0 victory Saturday against the Athletics, when he allowed three hits and struck out nine.

Hancock is 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA in two career starts against the Astros. He suffered a 1-0 loss Saturday to the Angels when the only run he allowed in 6 2/3 innings was a leadoff homer in the first. Hancock gave up six hits, didn't walk a batter and fanned five.

--Field Level Media