Seattle ? One of the Kansas City Royals has had to change his evening plans.

“I’m embarrassed,” right-hander Jose Lima said. “I’m embarrassed to go into a bar. The people would say, ‘They lost 18 in a row. They really stink this year.'”

The Royals lost their club-record 18th straight game Wednesday, moving within three of matching the longest skid in American League history by falling, 11-5, to the Seattle Mariners.

Manager Buddy Bell rejoined the Royals after a two-game absence while attending burial services at Arlington National Cemetery for his Marine nephew, who was killed by a roadside bomb earlier this month in Iraq.

Bell returned to the dugout and watched the Royals inch closer to the AL record of 21 straight losses set by the Baltimore Orioles at the start of the 1988 season. The modern major-league record for consecutive losses is 23, set by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies.

“This is tough,” Lima said, packing to go to Oakland with the rest of the Royals. “This is something we didn’t plan. Nothing is going our way right now.”

Kansas City manager Buddy Bell sits in the dugout during the final moments of the Royals' game against Seattle. The Mariners beat the Royals, 11-5, Wednesday in Seattle, handing K.C. its 18th straight loss.

The Royals start a three-game series Friday night at Oakland before returning home to face Boston for three games beginning Tuesday night. They’re 0-3 against both the Athletics and Red Sox, with both sweeps coming during their current streak.

Lima (4-11) will start Friday for the Royals, with Mike Wood (3-4) going Saturday night and Runelvys Hernandez (8-11) on Sunday.

Lima lost, 1-0, to Mike Maroth in the second game of a doubleheader Sunday at Detroit. He noted the Athletics, 5-3 losers to Baltimore on Wednesday, had a losing streak of their own at four straight. Like the Royals, the A’s are off today.

He hopes to break his team’s losing streak.

“I hope they keep losing,” Lima said of the A’s. “I’ve just got to do my job and stay focused like my last game.”

Adrian Beltre hit a grand slam in the first inning for the Mariners, and Jamie Moyer (10-4) made the early lead stand up. Seattle’s final run came in the eighth when Kansas City reliever Mike MacDougal fielded an easy comebacker with the bases loaded and threw the ball over catcher Paul Phillips’ head.

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Phillips provided the Royals’ biggest highlight, hitting a grand slam with two outs in the ninth, his first major-league homer.

“I’m excited I hit a home run, and I’m excited it was a grand slam, but it’s way overshadowed by the way we played,” Phillips said. “It’s never easy losing one game much less this many.”

Bell took over the Royals on May 31, three weeks after manager Tony Pena resigned. He watched D.J. Carrasco (5-7) surrender Beltre’s slam on his 17th pitch of the game.

Richie Sexson’s 30th homer in the fifth off Shawn Camp gave the Mariners an 8-0 lead.

“We’ve got to give ourselves a chance,” Bell said.

Bell doesn’t want to think about the possibility of his team tying Baltimore’s 21-game losing streak Sunday.

“There’s a lot of history I care about, but right now I just want to move forward,” he said. “We just need to play better. Right now we’re struggling at both ends. Nobody is going to give us any pity and we’re not going to pity ourselves.”

Kansas City has given up 10 or more runs seven times during their losing streak, while pitching to a 7.40 earned-run average. The Royals were outscored 26-11 and outhit 37-19 in the series against the Mariners.

Moyer pitched seven strong innings as Seattle completed the sweep. Kansas City has been swept in six straight series and shut out twice during the skid. For the season, they’ve been swept 17 times.

“Teams like Kansas City coming in here are scary,” Sexson said. “Eventually, they have to win. You just hope it’s not you.”

The Royals, on pace to set a club record with 109 losses this season, didn’t get a hit until David DeJesus singled to center with one out in the fourth.

Kansas City got three hits in the sixth, with Mike Sweeney singling in DeJesus, who doubled.

One of Kansas City’s bright spots during its dreary day came in the fourth when Camp picked off Ichiro Suzuki at first base.

Carrasco dropped to 0-3 in four starts during the streak, lasting only three-plus innings. He gave up seven runs and eight hits.

“It’s kind of hard to put your team in a hole like that,” he said. “It puts a damper on things. It’s a big letdown when you give up four runs in the first inning. I take it personally.”