SEATTLE _ The look was a mixture of dejection and disgust as he watched the ball rocket toward the right-field seats.
Brandon Brennan, the Seattle Mariners' best reliever this season, had thrown his best pitch _ the sinking changeup _ only to have it betray him in the worst possible way. Instead of diving low and away from the barrel of burly Chicago Cubs' slugger Kyle Schwarber, it stayed in the middle of the plate, just asking to be crushed. And it was _ a two-run eighth inning homer that proved to be the difference in the Mariners' 6-5 loss to the Cubs.
Brought in with two outs in the seventh inning of a tie game with the go-ahead run, Brennan struck out Javy Baez on that nasty changeup.
But in the eighth, he allowed a two-out double to Willson Contreras and it brought Schwarber to the plate.
The Mariners had a chance for a rally in the ninth against old friend and teammate Steve Cishek. Domingo Santana reached on broken bat infield single and Edwin Encarnacion walked to put the winning run on base. But Tim Beckham hit into a 4-6-3 double play and Jay Bruce struck out looking to end the game.
It was Seattle's third straight loss to fall to 18-14.
Seattle got a solid if not dominant start from Felix Hernandez. Coming off a brilliant performance in his previous outing, Hernandez wasn't quite as crisp. But he was still mostly effective, pitching six innings and allowing four runs on eight hits with a walk and eight strikeouts. He really only made two big mistake pitches.
Hernandez's second pitch of the game _ a get-me-over sinker on the bottom part of the strike zone, but over the middle of the plate _ was crushed by Daniel Descalso for a leadoff homer into right-center.
The Cubs pushed the lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning. David Bote led off with a single. With two outs, Hernandez walked Schwarber on a pair of borderline pitches and then gave up a RBI single to Albert Almora.
After giving outs and runs away with shoddy defense in their previous two games, the Mariner benefited from another team's fielding woes. Seattle scored three runs in the second inning with only one ball leaving the infield. Encarnacion led off with a walk and Beckham followed with a single to left. Bruce drove in Encarnacion with a ground ball to second to trim the lead to 2-1.
Seattle tied the score when Bote booted, almost literally, a hard ground ball off the bat of Braden Bishop that allowed Beckham to score.
The fielding woes for the Cubs continued. Dee Gordon hit a soft ground ball that shortstop Baez charged and made hurried and possibly ill-advised attempt to throw to first base. Even if his throw had been accurate, it appeared Gordon would beat out. The throw wasn't accurate, sailing wide of first baseman Anthony Rizzo, allowing Omar Narvaez to score on the play for a 3-2 lead.
The lead was shortlived. Hernandez gave up a double to Kris Bryant to start the fifth inning and then left a 3-1 sinker up in the zone to Rizzo that was deposited into the beer-soaked confines of The 'Pen for a two-run homer and a 4-3 lead.
The Mariners answered in the bottom of the sixth, knocking Chicago starter Cole Hamels out of the game. Ryon Healy led off with a double and later scored on Gordon's one-out line drive single to right to tie the score at 4-4.
Seattle grabbed a brief 5-4 lead in the seventh when Encarnacion smashed his eighth homer of the season, sending a solo blast off the signage above the visitors' bullpen.
