BOSTON – In one corner of the Red Sox clubhouse Saturday afternoon, Takashi Saito stood answering questions wearing a tee shirt that read 'Yawkey Way Rescue Squad.' In another, fellow reliever Justin Masterson was dishing out a little perspective.

On a day when Saito not only wasn't rescuing his team but was digging the Sox a quick grave in a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners, Masterson pooh-poohed any talk of the sky falling on Boston's highly-touted bullpen.

"You look back at everything we've done all year and its maybe two, three games out of 80 that we've run into trouble," Masterson said. "That's a pretty good clip."

While true, it's also undeniable that the bullpen has failed for the second straight game -- and third of the last four -- and that the Yankees are coming. Fast. Minutes after Boston's loss, the Yanks pulled out an extra-inning win over the Blue Jays to win for the ninth time in 10 games and pull within one game of the A.L. East-leading Red Sox.

Boston's loss also gives Seattle a chance to sweep the three-games series Sunday and snaps a string of seven consecutive series wins for the Red Sox.

No one in the Red Sox clubhouse is panicking, of course. It's much too early for any of that, even if the bullpen is springing leaks. On Friday night, Ramon Ramirez gave up two runs in the 11th inning and the Mariners held on for a 7-6 win. Saturday saw a Fourth of July crowd witness few fireworks as starting pitchers Brad Penny and Garrett Olson both threw well for six innings before turning a 2-2 game over to their bullpens.

Masterson pitched a smooth seventh inning and Hideki Okajima breezed in the eighth. But the Red Sox' luck ran out in the ninth with Saito.

A veteran whose control is his calling card, Saito ran into instant trouble. Ken Griffey battled him to a full-count walk and then left the game in favor of pinch-runner Wladimir Balentien. Balentien didn't have to do any running, however. Ryan Lengerhans fought his way to a full-count walk and then Saito walked Kenji Johjima on four straight pitches to load the bases.

"I was over-thinking things a little bit too much and trying to be too fine," Saito said through an interpreter.

With the Sox infield in, Chris Woodward poked a Saito fastball over first base that hugged the right-field line. Dustin Pedroia made a diving leap to stab the ball but it fell in for a single that pushed Balentien across with the go-ahead run. Saito escaped further damage by striking out Ronny Cedeno and getting Ichiro Suzuki to pop out to first, but the damage was done.

"It was a long, tough inning for him. He had to work for everything and because of his lack of command we had runners all over and we had to play (the infield in)," said manager Terry Francona. "When he did make a good pitch on Woodward, Petey couldn't quite get to it and that was a great pitch. That ball is hit 120 feet."

The Sox' final chance in the ninth off closer David Aardsma unfolded like most of their other innings: A few hard-hit balls that didn't quite fall in. Mark Kotsay's deep fly ball to left fell short of the wall for an out and pinch-hitter George Kottaras looked at a third strike to end the game.

The Red Sox' only fruitful inning came in the second. After a Rocco Baldelli walk, Jason Varitek crushed an Olson pitch deep to left for his 12th home run of the season and a 2-0 lead.

The Mariners scratched back with a single run in the third and another in the fifth off Penny, who threw well yet again by limiting Seattle to just six hits and two runs over six innings.

The Sox, who had only four hits overall, went hitless for 12 straight batters in the middle of the game, but saw a golden opportunity slip away in the sixth inning. Baldelli was hit by a pitch and Varitek stroked a hard single off the façade in short left field that gave Baldelli enough time to race to third base.

Jacoby Ellsbury followed with a hard slap back to the mound that Olson was fortunate to knock down. He quickly fired to third where Baldelli was caught off the bag. He tried to work his way out of a rundown but was nabbed by third baseman Woodward.

"My reaction is to go if the ball is hit on the ground and it happened to die right at the pitcher," Baldelli said. "The only thing I probably thought I could do is if (Woodward) threw it over the catcher's head I was going to score. I didn't have enough time to get home."

With one out in the eighth, David Ortiz pinch-hit for Baldelli and lined a shot right at second baseman Jose Lopez. That proved to be another near-miss for the Sox.

"We're fine," Ortiz said, "but good pitching can stop you often. Those guys the last few days are pitching good. It's not like we haven't scored any runs. We scored, they scored. That's how the game goes."

kmcnamar@projo.com