Local tuxedo shops may want to prepare for a bump in sales because Tuesday could be a special occasion at Safeco Field.

The Mariners could lose 100 games for the first time in 25 years Tuesday. They continued their demoralizing run to the century mark with a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field on Monday night.

Two weeks ago, the Mariners needed merely a mediocre ending to avoid 100, but that was before they rolled off 12 consecutive losses, including a winless 11-game road trip.

Monday's game was rather competitive, as the Mariners used the crafty pitching of Ryan Rowland-Smith to take it deep into the game tied at 1-1. Any suspense for stealing a win was squashed when Raul Ibanez botched a single to center from Reggie Willits in the seventh inning.

Jeff Mathis, already headed to third on a hit-and-run, continued his trot and scored standing up for the go-ahead run.

The Mariners shut down offensively after the fourth inning, not recording a hit. A brilliant performance by Ervin Santana gave way to a save opportunity for Francisco Rodriguez.

He gobbled up the Mariners in just 11 pitches for his major league record 61st save. But that was expected.

And the Mariners are beginning to enjoy Rowland-Smith as a staple of their rotation. He was the hard-luck loser, but the silver lining in his tornado cloud is the Aussie produced his seventh straight quality start -- he is 2-2 with three no-decisions during that span.

"It feels like I have a plan before I go out and I'm sticking to it," said Rowland-Smith, who allowed one earned run in seven innings. "If I get into jams, I'm not getting fed up and panicking, thinking OK this might be a big inning. It feels good to be able to get deep into games and limit the damage."

Still, Rowland-Smith hasn't won since Aug. 31, and the Mariners haven't recorded a win since an 8-7 decision at Texas on Sept. 10. A team that was expected to compete with Los Angeles for the AL West title is now a mind-boggling 40 games behind the Angels.

Los Angeles clinched the division nearly two weeks ago, an embarrassing fact for the Mariners, who loaded their roster with high-priced players to make a run. Instead, they are laboring as the season concludes.

"Seattle fans are very kind. They don't boo. To know they are kind like that and being in this situation is tough for me," Ichiro Suzuki said through an interpreter. "If I would have pictured (us losing 100 games) in spring training, I'd be an idiot. I would have never thought that."

Monday was Seattle's 29th one-run loss, nearly 30 percent of its defeats. And many of those can be attributed to an offense that has consistently sputtered, including Monday.

Rowland-Smith (4-3, 3.39 ERA) was smooth through the first three innings, the lone blemish a single by Vladimir Guerrero to begin the second and a walk to Torii Hunter. But he responded by inducing a lazy fly ball from Juan Rivera, and second baseman Luis Valbuena followed with an impressive stab of Erick Aybar's grounder to force Hunter at second.

The left-hander ended that frame by striking out Mathis. Guerrero returned in the fourth to even the game at 1-1 with a towering home run to left-center, and no one in Safeco was shocked at Guerrero's feat. He finished Monday hitting .362 in his career against Seattle with 24 home runs and 73 RBIs.

Despite a 3.37 ERA and three quality starts in his previous three outings, Rowland-Smith received three no-decisions. The shaky bullpen blew all three leads following his exit.

This time it was the defense that burned him. Ibanez's error ruined another sparking outing.

"It just so happens that Santana pitches the best game that might have been pitched against us this year," Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said. "He was just dominating. It was a tough loss, but when he's throwing like that, he's one of those guys (who has) electric stuff, and they're tough."

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Baseball. Tell us something we don't know Jim!