DETROIT -- The one-hour, 23-minute rain delay on Tuesday night knocked out Tigers starter Jeremy Bonderman. The Tigers offense seemingly left the game before the rain arrived.

Technically, Detroit's hitters had been held scoreless ever since the opening inning, but they were putting runners in scoring position before the delay. Once play resumed, they were held to a pair of singles, allowing Adrian Beltre's run-scoring groundout in the sixth to complete a four-run Mariners comeback in a 4-3 Tigers loss that whittled their American League Central lead to four games over the Twins.

In the end, a one-out walk from Andrew Miller in his second Major League outing set up the deciding run. But the fact that it could get to that wasn't a good sign for the run support.

"I think we have not swung the bats very well for a period of time," Leyland said. "We've had a spotty game or two where our offense has picked up a little bit, but for the most part, we just haven't swung the bats real well. We got off to a shot and we couldn't hold onto it long enough to give us a chance to add on runs."

Seattle's pitching holding down Detroit's hitting isn't anything new this season. The Tigers have scored three runs or fewer in five of their eight meetings this season, but they won many of those low-scoring duels when they visited Safeco Field in April and July. The fact that they couldn't keep this one low-scoring enough was a point of guilt for Bonderman, rightly or wrongly.

"This is my fault," Bonderman said after the game. "When you're the starting pitcher, you can't give up a three-run lead. I have to give my team a better chance than what I'm doing right now."

Yet while Bonderman's winless streak extended to eight starts since July 24, the offensive woes have been a more regular occurrence. They've been held to three runs or fewer in three of their last four games and six of 12 since Aug. 24. The consternation on Tuesday had more to do with the eight scoreless innings than the run total.

Detroit's first three batters of the game all scored -- Curtis Granderson on a Craig Monroe RBI single, then Monroe and Marcus Thames on an Ivan Rodriguez double -- as the Tigers threatened to put a knockout blow on Mariners starter Jake Woods early. Five of their first six batters reached base safely.

After Woods struck out Omar Infante to eliminate a sacrifice fly opportunity, however, the offense ran dry. Woods gave up just two more hits before the rain delay ended his outing.

Joel Pineiro (8-11), bumped from Seattle's rotation three weeks ago after giving up nine runs in 3 2/3 innings to Oakland, showed he still knows how to retire Tigers hitters by tossing 3 2/3 perfect innings. In the process, he improved to 6-1 for his career against Detroit.

"We went eight innings and didn't score a run," manager Jim Leyland said. "The facts are the facts. Yesterday, we had a little spurt in the seventh inning, but we had two hits until the seventh inning."

Not only did Pineiro retire all 11 hitters he faced, but just two balls put in play escaped the infield. Monroe hit both of them, flying out to center leading off the fifth and to the left-field warning track leading off the eighth. No Tigers hitter reached a three-ball count in that span.

Not until Mariners manager Mike Hargrove lifted Pineiro for Trenton, Mich., native J.J. Putz did Detroit threaten again. Magglio Ordonez greeted him with an infield single that shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt nearly turned into an extra base with a wayward throw. However, catcher Kenji Johjima backed up first base on the play and threw out Ordonez trying to take second. Betancourt scrambled to cover the bag so quickly that he tagged out Ordonez without a slide.

"I think it fooled him that the shortstop had to run so far to get to the bag," Leyland said.

Rodriguez's single leading off the bottom of the ninth started another threat. Again, it didn't last long. Putz's next pitch induced a double-play ground ball from Sean Casey. If the Tigers had the middle of their order coming up, Leyland admitted afterward, he might've had Casey bunt Rodriguez to second on that play. However, Casey was batting sixth, and Infante had already struck out twice behind him.

The rain delay meant that Bonderman never had a chance to rebound from the three-run fourth inning that tied the game. Five straight Mariners reached base safely, including Johjima on an RBI single and Beltre on a booted ground ball by Brandon Inge, who slipped on a soggy infield when he tried to recover and tag third base. Jose Lopez's ensuing groundout to first brought in Ben Broussard.

Bonderman gave up six hits in his four innings of work. With just two earned runs, however, the only change to his stat line was his ERA rising from 4.01 to 4.02. Leyland conferred with pitching coach Chuck Hernandez about their young right-hander, and both believe that he's healthy.

"I may not be reading this right," Leyland said, "but it just doesn't appear that he's pitching, pitching. It appears that he's throwing pretty good, but he's not pitching, pitching. He probably doesn't use his changeup enough, but you're always tentative to say stuff like that because the next time, he'll want to overthrow the changeup. He's just been sluggish for whatever reason. Hopefully, he can get it rolling."

Miller took the mound after the delay and retired the first four batters he faced before Broussard walked and Johjima singled down the right-field line, putting runners at the corners with one out. Miller used a 96-mph fastball to jam Beltre into a ground ball, but it was too slow of a roller for a double play, allowing Broussard to come home.

"Walking that guy killed me," Miller said. "That's a mistake I have to learn from. There's no way I can be happy. I just gave up the winning run."