NEW YORK — The Seattle Mariners have been the most baffling, maddening team in baseball. With a roster of prime-age players who nearly reached the World Series last fall, Seattle should be cruising through the tepid American League West. Instead, the team is sinking fast, the trident pointing down.The Mariners are eight games under .500, with a five-game losing streak, a daunting upcoming schedule and the fewest runs scored in the majors. Catcher Cal Raleigh feels responsible, and he unburdened himself on Tuesday night.After another punchless loss, 4-1, to the New York Yankees in the Bronx, Raleigh asked to address the media. The manager traditionally speaks first after games, but Raleigh took questions for nearly 10 minutes before manager Dan Wilson.“We’re not playing well, that starts with me — I’m awful,” Raleigh said, after striking out on a fastball well above the zone to end the game. “So it is what it is. I’ve got to find a way to be better and to help bring the guys along, and we’ve just got to play better.“Ultimately, we’re just playing very, very, very bad baseball in every facet of the game. We’ve got to pick it up from the energy standpoint, to the execution, to the little things in the game that help you win baseball games. And we’re just not doing those right now.”