Sox pitcher Bartolo Colon struggled in covering his position last night, helping the Mariners take an early lead.

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Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — Bartolo Colon should stick to throwing the baseball to the plate.

Or, at least, cut his throws to second base to a minimum.

And a little extra pitcher’s fielding practice (PFP) wouldn’t hurt him, either.

Colon made a pair of throwing errors to second over the first three innings that helped the Mariners take a 3-0 lead, and wasn’t able to field his position in the fifth, leading to another Seattle run.

In the first inning, Colon botched a double play on a bad throw to second on a play they work on most days in spring training during PFP.

Unfortunately, that was three months ago, and Colon wasn’t around from the first day of training camp.

Maybe that’s why Colon and his middle infielders messed up a routine inning-ending double-play bid in the first inning, a misplay that cost the Red Sox two runs, putting them in a quick 2-0 hole.

The Mariners had runners at first and second with one out when Adrian Beltre hit a tailor-made DP bouncer right back at Colon.

He cleanly fielded the ball, whirled toward second and fired a throw over the bag, though it tailed a bit toward the right-field side of the base.

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia was hanging back, behind the bag. Shortstop Julio Lugo was racing to cover the bag. The throw split the infielders and went into center field for an error, permitting one run to score and setting up the second run, which scored when the next batter, Jose Vidro, hit a chopper to Colon.

Generally, before a pitcher works to the batter with runners on base in a DP situation, he checks his middle infielders to see who is covering. Normally, when there’s a right-handed batter such as Beltre, the second baseman will cover.

This time, though, Lugo was covering, but it seemed as if he hesitated a split-second before committing to run across the bag as the baserunner, Raul Ibanez, went into his slide.

Colon’s second error came when he bounced a pickoff throw to second in the third. Again the ball rolled into center field, and the Mariners turned that miscue into a run on a sacrifice fly.

Colon’s fielding troubles, though, weren’t limited to making throws to second.

He was unable to field Richie Sexson’s relatively slow bouncer back through the mound in the fifth, a ball that threaded its way into center for an RBI single that put Seattle on top, 6-0.

Wily move by Varitek

Jason Varitek receives a lot of credit for his smarts as a catcher, and rightly so.

He also has some smarts as a hitter, too.

Varitek may not hit for a high average or for consistent power, but he’s an excellent hit-and-run man, and he’s a good bunter, too.

Last night, with a runner at first and one out in the second, Varitek, batting left-handed, noticed that Beltre was playing deep at third base and toward shortstop.

So Varitek dropped down a bunt, easily beating a throw from Beltre, who had to barehand the rolling baseball and throw it in one motion.

Heads-up base running

Seattle shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt was able to score from second base on Ichiro’s two-out single to left in the fourth inning.

It wasn’t because he made a good turn at third base, though. Betancourt wound up going wide around the bag, giving Boston left fielder Brandon Moss a chance to throw him out after fielding Ichiro’s liner.

Moss’ throw was strong, but it was a bit to the left of home plate, forcing Varitek to move to his left to glove the one-hop throw. Betancourt, meanwhile, was running on the outside of the baseline for the first 45 feet or so down the line.

Seeing Varitek shift to his left to receive the throw, Betancourt altered his course just a bit, so he was running inside the line. And as he neared home plate, he went into a fadeaway slide, leaning his body away from the plate, toward first base.

That maneuver enabled him to be safe. Betancourt was able to elude the belated tag of Varitek, who had a tough time trying to reach Betancourt because of the fadeaway slide.

skrasner@projo.com