Mariners pitching falters and four-game winning streak ends

The results don’t show it — not in Felix Hernandez’s final pitching line, and not in the final score — but the Mariners’ erstwhile ace left Safeco Field on Tuesday night encouraged by his latest makeover attempt.

Hernandez was solid through five innings against the Texas Rangers, helping the Mariners build a two-run lead in their quest for a fifth straight victory.

He couldn’t finish off his improved start, and the Mariners couldn’t complete a late rally in a 9-5 loss to the Rangers. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Mariners (33-21), who missed out on a chance to tie the Houston Astros atop the AL West standings.

Hernandez was pulled from the game with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning, after which things unraveled for the Mariners. But after some extensive film study the previous few days with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, Hernandez believed he’s made progress after a rough May.

“I feel much better,” he said. “I think I had more power in my legs and it was much better. … I think I made some good adjustments, before the sixth. But I feel really good; it was just one of those games where you couldn’t do anything about it.”

Trailing 5-4, the Mariners loaded the bases with one out in the eighth inning and tied it on Jean Segura’s RBI ground out, scoring Ben Gamel from third. The Mariners stranded two runners in scoring position when Denard Span, in his second game with Seattle, grounded out on a nice stop by Texas first baseman Ronald Guzman.

Mariners closer Edwin Diaz, called on to pitch the ninth inning with the score tied 5-5, gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases. Rougned Odor then hit an opposite-field double to left, scoring all three runners to give the Rangers an 8-5 lead, sending many of the 13,259 fans heading for the exits.

Guzman added an RBI single off the first pitch from reliever Chasen Bradford to make it 9-5.

“I lost my fastball command a little bit … and they hit my mistakes,” Diaz said. “I’ve been pitching good this year. Those days when you come into the game and you don’t have your command, you have to battle. If something bad happens, you flush it and come ready the next day.”

The Mariners’ seven pitchers combined to walk eight batters and hit two more.

The sixth inning was a wild one.

In succession, Hernandez allowed a double, a single and a walk to start the top of the sixth, ending his night with the bases loaded and no outs.

What happened over the next two pitches was out of Hernandez’s control: James Pazos’ first pitch in relief was a wild one, scoring one run for Texas. The next pitch, which induced a swing and a miss by Odor, got past Mike Zunino, allowing the tying run to come in.

Guzman then came through with an RBI single off Pazos, giving the Rangers a 5-4 lead.

All five runs were charged to Hernandez, who in six May starts has a 6.68 earned-run average.

Hernandez has struggled — and struggled mightily — in first innings this season. His 12.27 earned-run average in the first inning coming into Tuesday was the worst among qualified starters in the majors. He had given up at least one first-inning run in six of his first 11 starts, including a combined seven first-inning runs in his last two starts.

In the first inning Tuesday, he grooved a 2-0 fastball to Shin-Soo Choo, who belted the pitch into the second row in center field for a home run. Hernandez escaped further damage in the first, and the Mariners sent eight batters to the plate in the bottom of the first to take a 3-1 lead.

“Felix was much more focused tonight, no question about that,” manager Scott Servais said.

Hernandez expects more of himself.

“We’ve been playing really good. I feel disappointed. I think I’m disappointing my teammates the way I’m pitching for the last four starts,” he said. “That’s the way I’m feeling. … I just need to figure it out and be better.”

Guzman’s RBI single in the second inning off Hernandez cut the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.

Nelson Cruz hit a line-drive home run to left field, his ninth of the season, off Rangers’ starter Austin Bibens-Dirkx in the third inning to make it 4-2.

Hernandez was solid over his next three innings, and his fifth-inning strikeout of Choo — on a 90-mph fastball on the inside corner — was the 2,397th of his career, moving him past Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax and into a tie (with Kevin Brown) for 44th on baseball’s all-time strikeout list.

Span, acquired Friday in a trade with Tampa Bay, had his first hit, a double, for the Mariners in the first inning. He scored on Mitch Haniger’s two-run double.

Segura, back in the lineup after he passed concussion protocols, had three hits for the Mariners, who will send ace James Paxton to the mound Wednesday night against the Rangers.