SEATTLE — John McLaren was fired today as manager of the Seattle Mariners, who began the season with playoff aspirations and now have the worst record in the major leagues.

Bench coach Jim Riggleman will run the Mariners for the rest of their lost season, beginning Friday night in Atlanta.

The Mariners made the announcement before the team left on its road trip and three days after general manager Bill Bavasi was fired. McLaren was the second manager in the majors to be fired this season — the New York Mets dismissed Willie Randolph this week.

Seattle is 25-47 and 17› games behind the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West.

"John worked extremely hard, but our team continued to underperform compared to our expectations of them," interim general manager Lee Pelekoudas said in a statement. "With 90 games left on our schedule, we owe it to ourselves and our fans to do everything we can to win as many games as possible."

McLaren was an assistant for 21 1/2 years in the majors before he took over as Seattle's manager last July when Mike Hargrove abruptly quit. McLaren went 68-88 in less than a full season on the job.

This season, the revamped Mariners expected to reach their first postseason since 2001. Instead, they are on pace to become the first team to lose 100 games with a $100 million player payroll.

"As we move towards the trade deadline and decisions have to be made on the futures of the players on our ballclub, I wanted to see if a different voice could make a difference in their performance," Pelekoudas said.

Seattle players still hadn't been entirely informed of the morning announcement and were expected to hold a team meeting before leaving for Atlanta.

When asked Wednesday night if he was worried about his future before yet another loss, to Florida, the mostly sunny McLaren laughed.

"You know, it's business as usual for me," he said, with a hint of emotion in his voice and eyes. "I come out here with the positive attitude, ready to grind. It's a new day. Not happy with where we are, but I know where we want to go. And I'm here just to work hard."

"I'm here to win this game tonight. That's the attitude I will always have."

Not anymore.

McLaren was thrust into the managerial role when Hargrove suddenly resigned midway through last season and the Mariners making a surprising challenge in the AL West. Under McLaren's lead, the Mariners stayed in the playoff race into late August before a nine-game losing streak ended their postseason hopes.

Seattle management gave McLaren a roster this season most believed was talented enough to make a strong run at the Angels. Instead, the Mariners have been a "dysfunctional" unit — as Bavasi said on his way out earlier this week — and stumbled from the start.

The acquisition of starting pitcher Erik Bedard has been mostly a bust, with Bedard carrying a 4-4 record into his scheduled start Friday in Atlanta and getting highly criticized for his lack of pitching deep into games. There have been injury problems with the bullpen — namely closer J.J. Putz — and an anemic offense with players performing nowhere near their prior benchmarks.

Riggleman has over 1,000 games of managerial experience in the majors, including leading the Chicago Cubs to the NL wild card in 1998 with a 90-72 record. He managed the Cubs from 1995-99 and spent two full seasons managing the San Diego Padres.

But like Pelekoudas, Riggleman's status is only interim.

"He is intimately familiar with our ballclub and I believe he will do a fine job," Pelekoudas said.