SEATTLE _ Felix Hernandez deserved a win on Sunday afternoon.
In a frustrating season where he hadn't been in line for many of them, the beleaguered Mariners' ace quieted his doubters and critics for at least five more days with his best outing of the season.
He pitched eight strong innings, allowing just one run on five hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. It wasn't quite vintage Hernandez of years past, but it provided a flashback of better times.
And yet, when he left the game his team was trailing 1-0, having been thoroughly dominated by Rays starter Blake Snell.
But in typical Mariners fashion, they rallied for two runs in the eighth inning against Tampa's bullpen and secured a 2-1 win and series sweep of the Rays, moving 15 games over .500 and alone in first place in the AL West (Houston plays the Red Sox at 4:35 p.m.).
Snell was something beyond dominant. He struck out the first seven batters of the game _ tying an American League record. Denard Span broke the string of strikeouts with a groundball out to second base for the second out of the third inning. After actually allowing contact, Snell came back to strike out Mike Zunino to end the inning. Eight strikeouts in nine batters isn't a bad way to start the game. He wasn't quite as overpowering the rest of the way, only striking out for four more batters over the next three innings, while allowing just two hits _ an infield single off the bat of Dee Gordon and a hard single from Ryon Healy.
But with his pitch count at 104, he was pulled after six innings pitched with a total of 12 strikeouts and no walks.
His teammates couldn't close it out. Former Mariner Brad Miller dropped a sure out at first base on a sac bunt. That allowed Span to haunt his old team and drive in pinch runner Andrew Romine with a tying run on a single to right field. Gordon gave the team the lead moments later, blooping a soft single left field that just barely reached the grass.
Edwin Diaz made the one-run lead hold up with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 21st save of the season.
