SEATTLE – Only five times in 19 starts before Friday’s action had Felix Hernandez allowed more than two runs, which meant that barring a rare hiccup from the ace right-hander, Marco Estrada needed to be pretty close to flawless for the Toronto Blue Jays to emerge victorious.
Well, King Felix did not suffer a hiccup on this night, and Estrada was nowhere near flawless in a 5-2 Seattle Mariners win, one that turned on a Mark Trumbo homer in the fourth and was essentially settled on Robinson Cano’s two-run triple in the fifth.
No offence, no matter how good, is erasing that type of deficit against Hernandez when he’s on.
“I was all over the place – you can’t do that, especially when you’re going up against a guy like Felix,” lamented Estrada, who allowed five runs in four-plus innings on eight hits and three walks. “The guys scored early for us and I just let them down today.”
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Jose Bautista hit his 224th home run with the Blue Jays, moving him past Vernon Wells for second all-time in club history, but it wasn’t enough to keep his team from falling back to .500 at 49-49 before a crowd of 43,328 teeming with supporters from Western Canada.
The Blue Jays now must beat former teammate J.A. Happ on Saturday and Taijuan Walker on Sunday to ensure a winning road trip. In that vein, they must keep winning series, like they did in Oakland at the front end of this trip, if they’re going to be real about making a legit run at the AL East-leading New York Yankees.
Contenders can’t linger around the break-even point forever.
“When you face King Felix it’s going to be tough,” said Jose Reyes, who had two hits and a run scored. “We still have two more games, if we come out here and win the series, that’s a very good road trip for us.”
Complicating matters was that Estrada, abruptly pushed up a day with Drew Hutchison still ailing with flu-like symptoms, regularly fell behind hitters and gave up hard contact even before the Mariners finally broke through in the fourth, when Seth Smith reached on a squib toward third and Trumbo poked a 1-0 fastball over the wall in right to erase a 1-0 deficit.
Estrada escaped further damage in the fourth after allowing a one-out walk to Brad Miller and a ground-rule double to Mike Zunino, striking out Austin Jackson before Dioner Navarro cleverly picked off Miller at third, making a strong throw to Josh Donaldson, who blocked the base with his entire body for the out.
There was no escape from his troubles in the decisive fifth, however, as Kyle Seager opened the frame with a double, Nelson Cruz followed with a single and Cano ripped a two-run triple for a 4-1 Mariners lead. Ryan Tepera came on and nearly stranded Cano, but a wild pitch on a two-out walk to Logan Morrison allowed him to cross.
“I didn’t prepare right today, I let the game get away from me, it’s just unfortunate, man, I was feeling good today, I just didn’t make pitches,” said Estrada, who was told by pitching coach Pete Walker that he might have been rushing his delivery, but didn’t feel it on the mound. “Usually I do (identify problems) when things aren’t going well, I kind of figure it out pretty quick, I think, and I try to fix it. Today I don’t know what happened, I just wasn’t making pitches.”
The 5-2 lead was plenty for Hernandez, who allowed a run on the first when Jose Reyes, who reached on an infield single and took second on a Hernandez throwing error, came around on a delayed charge to the plate when Edwin Encarnacion grounded out to first, and then nothing until Bautista’s drive in the sixth.
“When that guy’s pitching you try to find a way to score runs any way you can,” Reyes said of his opportunistic dash in the first. “When (Morrison) went back to touch first base he wasn’t even looking at me, I just took a chance there. I’m glad that I made it.”
The Blue Jays threatened briefly in the seventh when Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis collected two-out singles, but Hernandez regrouped to strike out Reyes and that was all, folks.
“Hernandez, he’s not going to give you much,” said manager John Gibbons. “When he’s on, you’re playing with fire.”
And on this night, the Blue Jays got burned.