TORONTO — The worst inning Felix Hernandez has ever endured put another dent in Seattle’s sinking playoff hopes.
Dalton Pompey hit his first major league homer off Hernandez, and the Toronto Blue Jays roughed up the 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner for a career worst-tying eight earned runs in a 10-2 victory over the Mariners on Tuesday night.
“As an ace, I take responsibility,” Hernandez said. “I let my team down. That’s my fault.”
The slumping Mariners fell three games out of the second AL wild-card spot with five games remaining.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” outfielder Austin Jackson said. “We know the situation that we’re in.”
Seattle lost its fourth straight thanks to another poor effort by a starting pitcher. Mariners starters have failed to complete five innings in any of the past four games, allowing 27 earned runs over 14 2-3 innings in that span for an ugly ERA of 16.56.
“We’re not playing well right now,” Seattle manager Lloyd McClendon said. “A lot of things are going wrong, but we’re still alive.”
Despite the win, Toronto was eliminated from playoff contention when Kansas City beat Cleveland.
“We’re all disappointed,” Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey said. “We should be.”
Edwin Encarnacion had a two-run shot and Dickey (14-12) allowed two runs over seven innings to win for the fourth time in five starts.
Hernandez (14-6) came in with a 2.07 ERA this season and had allowed just three earned runs in 28 innings over four September starts. He gave up a run in the first on Encarnacion’s RBI single, but retired the next 11 batters, striking out five.
That streak ended in the fifth, when Pompey led off with a second-deck homer.
“I’ve played with that guy in video games,” Pompey said, referring to Hernandez. “To think that I just hit a home run off him is pretty crazy.”
Anthony Gose followed with a double and Josh Thole reached on a bunt single when Hernandez couldn’t pick up the ball.
“After that it was downhill,” Hernandez said.
It sure was. Ryan Goins made it 3-2 Toronto with a sacrifice fly. Jose Reyes singled, Jose Bautista walked and Encarnacion drew a bases-loaded walk before Adam Lind hit an RBI single.
Munenori Kawasaki drove in a run with a fielder’s choice, and Pompey walked before Dominic Leone replaced Hernandez.
“He just seemed to lose his command in the fifth inning for some reason,” McClendon said.
Leone did Hernandez no favors, hitting Gose with a pitch to force in another run and giving up an RBI single to Thole before Goins flied out, ending the seven-run, 13-batter inning. The seven runs were the most ever allowed by Hernandez in a single inning.
Hernandez gave up seven hits, walked three and boosted his career-high strikeout total to 241.
