SEATTLE -- For all the trials and tribulations (and turnover) the Orioles have faced on the mound lately, it’s been a team-wide struggle to generate runs that has brought those struggles squarely into focus.

Baltimore’s bats went cold again Thursday, when the Orioles managed just four hits in their 5-2 series-opening defeat to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Playing without injured Trey Mancini, the Orioles were largely silenced by Wade LeBlanc, followed by two Seattle relievers en route to their ninth straight loss. That matches their longest from a year ago, when the Orioles finished a franchise-worst 47-115.

• Box score

Baltimore has scored 58 runs in June (lowest total in the American League) and just nine runs over the first four games of its current West Coast road trip. They rank last in average and slugging and 14th in on-base percentage among AL clubs this month.

“We’re not making it easy on ourselves, we don’t tack on runs and it’s difficult to win that way,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “We don’t add onto leads. We don’t add on runs. It seems like once we get down, these last couple weeks, we have a hard time getting back into it. We’re having a hard time against Major League bullpens that seem to be going through us as of late.”

Both trends continued Thursday, when the Orioles parlayed three walks from Mariners opener Tayler Scott into a quick lead, courtesy of Rio Ruiz’s two-run single. But Baltimore scattered just three singles over the next six-plus innings against LeBlanc, who entered play with an ERA north of 6.

“We didn’t score. We got four hits off Wade LeBlanc,” Hyde said. “We scored two runs in the first and I’m not sure we hit a ball hard after that.”

That allowed the Mariners to hang around until the middle innings, at which point they pounced. Seattle used a Domingo Santana solo homer and three straight hits to chase Dylan Bundy in the sixth, grabbing the lead with Kyle Seager’s go-ahead single. Mac WIlliamson socked an RBI single off Evan Phillips later in the frame, and Seattle added another insurance run when Paul Fry issued a bases-loaded walk in the seventh.

“I was leaving pitches over the middle in the plate that sixth inning more than I was in the first five,” Bundy said. “After that Santana homer, I wasn’t able to shut them down that inning.”

For Bundy, it was a familiar script. Three times in the past four starts, he’s withered in the sixth after cruising for much of the first five innings. His ERA in the sixth this season is 14.29. It’s 3.85 otherwise.

He’s also now received fewer than four runs of support in 14 of his 15 starts this season, and two or fewer in nine of those games.

“All I can control is what I do on the mound,” said Bundy, who is 3-9 with a 4.59 ERA overall. “I’m not worrying about that, and we’ll pick it up here soon.”

Bullpen moves

As they have nearly every day for the past week, the Orioles reshuffled their bullpen again late Thursday night, optioning Fry and Phillips to Triple-A Norfolk. They did so preparing for a bullpen game after placing John Means on the injured list with a left strain shoulder. Means was originally slated to start Friday, now the Orioles will deploy several relievers to cover innings in his place.

The fact that they pitched Thursday made Phillips and Fry both expendable. Phillips is no stranger to the Norfolk shuttle, having been yo-yoed back and forth several times already this season. This latest stint lasted just one appearance, the Orioles recalling, pitching and optioning Phillips in a span of 24 hours.

For Fry, trips to Norfolk have been much less frequent. This marks his first since debuting in the Majors last June, after which Fry pitched to a 3.35 ERA over 35 games as a rookie. He was one of Baltimore’s more reliable relievers for long stretches this season as well, but has seen his ERA jump more than a run this month. Fry heads down having allowed nine runs (six earned) over his last 2 1/3 innings. He owns a 4.75 ERA across 32 appearances overall.