All is not well in Seattle. The 2007 Mariners won 88 games and sparked a renewed interest in the young club this spring, but the 2008 version sports the worst record in the American League at 45-72.

The Mariners canned skipper John McLaren in mid-June, a few days after firing GM Bill Bavasi. McLaren went 66-88 as Seattle’s manager, following Jeff Hargrove’s abrupt retirement in July 2007, and the M’s have been only marginally better at 20-25 under interim manager Jim Riggleman.

The possibility the listless Mariners aren’t giving a full effort hasn’t been addressed by the front office or players, but after Friday night’s loss to the Rays, right-hander Carlos Silva broke that “wall of silence,” according to Seattle Times sportswriter Geoff Baker.

Silva unloaded after losing in a less-than-stellar effort of his own, allowing eight hits, three walks and four earned runs in six innings of a 5-3 decision. He fell to 4-13 with a 5.92 ERA and .322 opponent batting average on the season, then took on teammates who he believes are phoning it in or simply padding statistics.

Insisting that his frustration wasn’t based on his Friday night effort, Silva told Baker “maybe half the team wants to do the best they can.” He suggested that at times some players were more interested in getting a hit than moving a runner over, or a pitcher was looking for a strikeout rather than inducing a groundball.

“I don’t care if we are 40 games behind, we should have played better than this,” said Silva, who is called “The Chief” by teammates. “For me, every game is important.”

It might be easy to write off Silva’s comments in light of his own poor performance, but Baker noted that fellow starter Felix Hernandez was standing directly to Silva’s right with a smile on his face while his veteran teammate lashed out about how the team’s approach was making the rotation look bad. Starter Jarrod Washburn was a few feet away, listening but not commenting.

Silva stepped into similar tricky territory with the Twins a few years ago, when he criticized his team’s performance in the middle of a lackluster season. It didn’t go over well, as Silva was perceived as selfish and casting blame for his own problems.

That experience made him cautious about speaking out, but the cat’s out of the bag now. Some will say Silva should look in the mirror, but it’s just as likely that the Mariners will need to do even more housecleaning to change the clubhouse culture in 2009.