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Jul 18, 2009 - 4:18 AM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

Seattle (46-43) at Cleveland (36-54), 7:05 p.m. EDT

Jarrod Washburn's surprising first half has helped the Seattle Mariners remain in contention in the AL West. If he doesn't help his team stay there, however, he may soon be on his way out of town.

The Mariners are unsure if they plan to trade Washburn before the July 31 deadline, but in the meantime the left-hander will try to win his third straight start Saturday night as visiting Seattle continues its four-game series against the Cleveland Indians.

Washburn (6-6, 2.96 ERA) lost at least 14 games in each of his first three years in Seattle, but he developed a new sinker coming into this season and compiled the AL's fifth-best ERA at the All-Star break.

He's been especially effective lately. After pitching a one-hit shutout against Baltimore on July 6, he allowed one run and four hits in seven innings of last Saturday's 4-1 win over Texas.

Washburn's contract expires at the end of this season, and the Mariners have to decide if they want to hang onto him as they try to make a run at their first division title since 2001.

"Hopefully, we keep winning and I'm here," Washburn said before the break. "If I end up getting moved it'll probably mean we haven't played good ball these two next weeks and something negative is happening here."

Washburn will be looking for his first road win since pitching eight innings in a 2-0 victory over Minnesota on April 9 during his season debut. In six starts away from Seattle after that, he's gone 0-3 with a 4.58 ERA and received 13 runs of support.

Washburn is 6-3 with a 3.44 ERA in 11 career outings at Progressive Field.

The Mariners (47-43) opened this series with a 4-1 loss Thursday, but rebounded one night later with a 6-2 victory behind ace Felix Hernandez. They've gone 17-10 since June 15 but haven't lost more than two in a row.

Pitching has been the key, as the club leads the AL with a 3.70 team ERA.

Seattle took a lead it would not relinquish Friday on Franklin Gutierrez's second-inning home run. Gutierrez, who was acquired in an offseason trade from Cleveland, is batting .364 (39 for 107) with eight homers and 19 RBIs in his last 27 games.

"I'm playing every day and I'm playing relaxed," Gutierrez said. "I'm not putting pressure on myself. When I was playing here, I felt a little bit of pressure because I wanted to play every day. (In Seattle) they gave me the opportunity to do that."

The last-place Indians (36-55) have dropped 19 of their last 26 since mid-June while posting a 6.01 staff ERA in those games.

Tomo Ohka (0-3, 6.40) will again look for his first win since April 29, 2007. The right-hander was out of the majors last season and has been mostly ineffective this year.

Ohka is 0-2 with a 5.73 ERA in two starts against Seattle and hasn't faced them since 2001 while playing with Boston.

He allowed five runs in 3 2-3 innings of a 10-1 defeat to Detroit on Sunday.