KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Unlike the night before, there was no flirtation with being no-hit and there was no getting shut out.

The Mariners’ hitters woke from their one-game slumber, roughing up a starting pitcher who was primed to be hit around and gave starter Felix Hernandez, who had a decent outing, plenty of help in a drama-free 8-3 win on Tuesday night.

It was the fifth time this season that the Mariners scored five or more runs. Not surprisingly, they are 4-1 in those games.

Seattle welcomed Royals top prospect and starting pitcher Eric Skoglund back to real game action, scoring five runs off him in the 42/3 innings.

While the lanky left-hander is obviously talented, the circumstances around his first start of the 2018 season weren’t exactly a recipe for success.

As the Royals’ No. 5 starter coming out of spring, he hadn’t pitched in a game situation in 23 days. His last outing came on March 17 in a Cactus League game against the Rangers when he tossed four innings. He had a scheduled start in an exhibition game on March 26 in Omaha, but the game was cancelled because of inclement weather. Once the season began, Skoglund’s scheduled debut start was skipped because of a snow day on Easter Sunday that allowed the Royals to reconfigure their pitching.

He looked a little rusty when he hit Dee Gordon with the third pitch of the game. He then looked flustered when Gordon promptly stole second and third off him. Gordon later scored easily on Mitch Haniger’s single to right.

In his second inning of work, Skoglund, again, hit the first batter he faced — Daniel Vogelbach. The Mariners capitalized with Jean Segura plating two runs with a triple to deep left-center and Robinson Cano smacking a double off the wall in center to score Segura to make it 4-0.

Guillermo Heredia tied Nelson Cruz and Haniger for the team lead in homers, launching a ball over the wall in left field.

After a 25-pitch first inning, Hernandez knew he had a lead to work with and reined in his pitch count a little. He worked the next two frames scoreless. The Royals got to him in the fourth after retiring eight straight hitters. Whit Merrifield singled up the middle and Mike Moustakas blasted a two-run homer into the fountains.

Seattle answered with three runs in the sixth, highlighted by a two-run single to left-center from Kyle Seager.

Hernandez worked into the sixth inning, but never finished. He was credited with 52/3 innings, allowing three runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts. It wasn’t dominant, but it wasn’t a catastrophe like his last outing.