Mariners come up short against Cleveland despite Robinson Cano’s two homers

The Mariners’ two-out magic had all the makings of another fairy-tale ending Thursday night, with their best hitter at the plate and the Safeco Field crowd on its feet, buzzing about another late rally.

It was not to be this time.

Robinson Cano struck out swinging at a Cody Allen curveball in the dirt and was thrown out on a 2-3 putout at first base to send the Mariners to a 5-3 defeat and a four-game series split with Cleveland late Thursday.

Cano had already homered twice, including a solo blast in the eighth inning, to provide most of the offensive support for the Mariners, who lead the major leagues in two-out RBI this season.

Norichika Aoki started another two-out rally against Allen, the Indians’ closer, with a ninth-inning single. Seth Smith followed with a line-drive single up the middle, putting runners at the corners for Cano.

“This is the team we’ve been all year, but I think we’ve got to find a way to start (scoring) earlier,” Cano said. “I think it’s easier not only for the team but also for your starter. … We’ve just got to keep fighting. There’s a lot of games left in the season. The last thing you can do is hang your head.”

Cleveland rookie Tyler Naquin hit a two-run home run on an 0-2 pitch in the eighth inning off Mariners reliever Joaquin Benoit (0-1), breaking a 2-2 tie. Naquin’s homer was preceded by Benoit’s walk to Rajai Davis — on a borderline 3-2 pitch — the eighth walk of the night allowed by Mariners pitchers.

“Our whole night kind of revolved around the walk,” manager Scott Servais lamented. “You’d like to have them bang the ball around the park against you versus walking (them), no doubt.”

A Benoit throwing error led to another Cleveland run to make it 5-2.

Cano hit his second homer in the eighth — his 18th of the season — to cut the Mariners’ deficit to 5-3.

Kyle Seager added a two-out single and Lind followed with a walk. That prompted a call to Allen, the Cleveland closer, who got Ketel Marte to ground out weakly to second to end the threat.

With a chance to win the series and build momentum with AL West-leading Texas coming to town Friday, the Mariners instead were undone in part by another ineffective start from pitcher Nathan Karns.

For the second straight outing, Karns did not make it out of the fifth inning. Once again, he had difficulty locating his fastball with any consistency, and he especially struggled pitching out of the stretch, finishing with as many walks (five) as strikeouts for the second start in a row.

And yet, it could have been much worse for Karns, who gave up only one run on two hits in his 41/3? innings of work. He took a no-decision.

With the bases loaded in the second inning, center fielder Aoki made a sliding catch on the warning track in left-center field to rob Carlos Santana of extra bases and save three runs.

Aoki has been filling in for injured center fielder Leonys Martin (strained hamstring), who is eligible to return from the disabled list on Friday.

In the fifth inning, right fielder Nelson Cruz saved another run when he made a perfect throw to the plate to get Francisco Lindor for the final out of the inning — but not before Santana had scored from third base to tie the score at 1-1.