• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Blue Jays rout King Felix, Mariners

Sep 24, 2014 - 6:01 AM Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - Dalton Pompey cracked his first major-league homer off former Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners 10-2 on Tuesday.

Pompey's upper-deck blast leading off the fifth sparked a seven-run inning against the Mariners ace, who gave up eight runs for only the second time in his career.

Hernandez didn't make it out of the inning and the Mariners, who are chasing an AL wild-card spot, dropped their fourth game in a row.

R.A. Dickey (14-12) remained unbeaten in his last seven starts after giving up just two runs and five hits in seven innings. The knuckleballer outdueled his fellow former Cy Young winner, striking out six.

Edwin Encarnacion added a two-run homer for the Blue Jays, who have taken the first two games of the four-game series by a combined score of 24-6 to reach 80 wins (80-77) for the first time in three seasons.

The Mariners are three games out of a wild-card spot with five games left in the season. They haven't made the playoffs since tying the major-league record with 116 wins in 2001.

"If someone else has a shot at (making the playoffs) and you're at the end, you get a little enjoyment" out of beating them, said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "It's not what drives you, but it never hurts."

Hernandez (14-6) had allowed just three earned runs in four previous starts this month, but fell to 1-3 in his last eight outings.

He retired 11 straight batters before Pompey, appearing in his 12th MLB game, teed off on a 3-1 pitch to tie the score at 2-2.

"Real disappointing," Hernandez said. "As an ace, I let my teammates down, I let my team down. It's my fault."

Five of the seven hits Hernandez allowed came in the inning, including an RBI single by Adam Lind. Runs scored on Ryan Goins' sacrifice fly, Encarnacion's bases-loaded walk and Munenori Kawasaki's RBI fielder's choice.

Two more came after Hernandez was replaced by Dominic Leone. who hit Anthony Gose with the bases loaded and surrendered an RBI single to Josh Thole.

Encarnacion added an upper-deck homer off Erasmo Ramirez in the sixth to make it 10-2. Ramirez hit Kawasaki on the leg after Lind singled and both benches were warned by home plate umpire Jim Joyce.

Toronto got to Hernandez early when Jose Bautista hit a ground-rule double, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Encarnacion's single with one out in the first inning.

Seattle loaded the bases in the third and took the lead on Robinson Cano's two-out, two-run single.

Game Notes

It was the first time Hernandez gave up eight runs since Aug. 28, 2013, when he was charged with nine runs -- eight earned -- in three innings of a 12-4 loss to Texas ... Dickey improved to 5-0 in his last seven starts ... Toronto went 81-81 in 2011.