THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Well. ... just where do the Mariners turn now?

He’s seen it all.

He’s celebrated and suffered.

On Wednesday afternoon, Scott Servais could only stare at the sky.

“Baseball can be cruel,” he said.

After a few moments pause, he added: “It also can be beautiful.”

The Mariners got on a flight to Chicago that night, and there’s no question they were having trouble seeing that “beautiful” side of the game.

Just when it seemed that everything awful had happened during five straight losses to the Angels, the Mariners stumbled across something even more bizarre — and it cost them a 2-1 loss.

They’re now officially out of first place, after being 10 games in front of the entire AL West on June 18.

“We’ve had to handle some tough things here this week, and there’s nothing you can do but play your way out of it,” Servais said.

After playing sloppy baseball and being offensively inept in this recurring nightmare against the Angels — they scored one run in each of the three losses — it seemed that almost everything wrong had come and gone before Wednesday’s finale.

NOPE.

The final gaffe, which offered the Angels one more victory on a plate, was truly bizarre.

It also made you wonder if reliever Gregory Santos, who was finally in action after sitting out the first half of the season with a muscle injury, knows the rules of the game.

Santos came on in the eighth inning to protect a 1-0 lead after Luis Castillo stoned the Angels for six.

L.A. promptly tied the game on a two-out, ground ball single by Willie Calhoun.

Frustrating, but not the end of the world.

No, that was coming just a minute or two later.

Santos apparently strained his knee, and felt the pain after Calhoun’s hit.

He should have called time out or asked for a trainer, but Santos stepped back up on the mound.

When the knee caused him discomfort, he flinched — which was correctly called a balk.

In case you don’t know the rule, you can only break contact with the pitching rubber by stepping BACK, or making a move to first or to the plate.

Once you start one of those motions, you have to complete it.

People often see pitchers turn and fake a throw to second (or third), which is legal.

First base is a whole different ballgame, and Santos technically had started a move with a runner on first.

Eventually, he got help from Servais and a trainer, and came out of the game.

But the balk cost the Mariners, big time.

Pinch runner Kevin Pillar was moved to second, and scored the eventual winning run on Brandon Drury’s single to center off Trent Thornton.

If only Santos had stepped back off the rubber for treatment … aahhh!

This is the kind of thing that happens when you’re in a losing dive, and in the case of the Mariners, you have to wonder how it might impact their plans prior to next Tuesday’s trade deadline.

Do you suppose THEY know at this point?

SERVAIS had a rugged few days.

Besides watching his team fail to score more than one run against the normally toothless Angels, he broke character on Monday night and criticized his players — in public — for poor play and lack of focus.

That’s not something the old-fashioned Servais would normally do.

He keeps things private with the players.

This time, though, he was obviously furious with their imitation of the Bad News Bears.

On top of all that, he’s lost J.P. Crawford to a fractured finger, Julio Rodriguez with a high ankle sprain — and now Santos with a strained knee.

This is a beat-up team.

The question coming up is whether they should still shoot for the division title by making a couple of bold trades.

It’s hard to picture Seattle outrunning the Astros at this point, with all these injuries — and major trades would cost some of their top prospects.

The worst-case scenario would be shipping away some future stars — guys who could play with this fabulous pitching staff in a year or two — and only get back some warm bodies for a fruitless chase at this year’s division.

Either way, it will be a tough decision.

Maybe an even tougher one to defend.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”