Mariners 0 - 1 Blue Jays
Final
  for this game

Mariners aim to keep fading postseason hopes alive vs. Blue Jays

Sep 24, 2014 - 2:21 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Seattle Mariners are starting to run out of time.

They'll try to keep their fading postseason hopes alive on Wednesday when they continue a four-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

Seattle lost its fourth straight game on Tuesday, as Dalton Pompey cracked his first major-league homer off Felix Hernandez and Toronto rolled to a 10-2 win.

"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."

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.

R.A. Dickey (14-12) remained unbeaten in his last seven starts after giving up just two runs and five hits in seven innings.

Edwin Encarnacion added a two-run homer for the Blue Jays, who have outscored the Mariners, 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.

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."

Now the Mariners turn to young Taijuan Walker, who was impressive his last time out. Filling in for the injured Roenis Elias, Walker beat the Houston Astros on Friday, holding them to a pair of runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings to even his record at 2-2 to go along with a 3.00 ERA.

All three of the 22-year-old's career wins have come against the Astros, whom he's faced four times out of his seven major league starts since last September.

"It wasn't great," Walker said. "I can definitely do better, but it was a good win for us. The offense scored a lot of runs. They put up that seven-run inning, and after that I was just able to go out there and attack the hitters."

Toronto, meanwhile, will counter with lefty Mark Buehrle, who has just one win since the start of August. Buehrle lost to the New York Yankees on Friday, as he allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings to fall to 12-10 with a 3.53 ERA.

Buehrle needs six innings to record his 14th straight season of reaching 200.

"I don't know how he feels, but it's important to me," Gibbons recently said. "He's done it his whole career. That's not your No. 1 priority, but I think for what he's accomplished and what he's meant to this team, the kind of pitcher he is, that's important to me."

Buehrle has faced the Mariners 17 times (16 starts) and is 7-4 against them with a 3.82 ERA.

The Mariners swept the Blue Jays in three games from Aug. 11-13 in Seattle.






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