SEATTLE _ Felix Hernandez had his best start of the season.
A crowd of more than 35,000 turned out.
It was a beautiful summer night.
All the ingredients were there, except for two important ones: The Seattle Mariners couldn't score, and they didn't play defense that well, either. Those were the obvious takeaways from the Mariners' 4-1 loss Thursday to the New York Yankees, a team they're chasing in the playoff race.
Hernandez allowed just one run in seven innings and struck out more batters than he had all season. But it wasn't enough.
The Mariners spoiled a great scoring chance in the fourth inning: Two on, no outs. But Mitch Haniger and Jarrod Dyson popped out. Mike Zunino walked to load the bases, but the inning ended on a ground out from Jean Segura.
And again in the eighth inning, the Mariners (48-49) wasted a good chance: Two on, one out, same part of the lineup. But Haniger grounded out and Dyson struck out to end the inning.
The Mariners were 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base.
Then their defense faltered, too. In the eighth inning, an unearned run scored after an error on Segura. Two more unearned runs scored in the ninth when second baseman Robinson Cano misfired a throw to first with two outs.
The Mariners scored their only run with two outs in the ninth inning, when Cano doubled to drive in Zunino.
Hernandez was exceptional all night except for one pitch.
That was the one he made in the sixth inning to Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner, who sent Hernandez's pitch into the night for a solo home run.
It was just the Yankees' second hit against Hernandez _ and the game's only run until that point.
Other than that, Hernandez had arguably his most complete start of the season:
_ He pitched seven innings, his second-longest start of the season.
_ He threw a season-high 107 pitches, sparing the bullpen after a string of close and taxing games.
_ He struck out a season-high nine batters, just two starts after striking out eight batters.
_ For the first time since April Hernandez lowered his ERA below 4.00 (It's now 3.88).
Since returning from the disabled list in late June, Hernandez's ERA is 3.00.
The Yankees scored their second run in the eighth inning thanks in large part to an error by Segura, who charged a slow grounder that could have been a double play and mishandled it.
The Yankees scored two batters later on a flared single from Aaron Judge.
In the ninth, Cano fielded a ground ball in the outfield and fired to first. But his throw sailed into the basepath, first baseman Danny Valencia couldn't field it and two runs scored.
Mariners manager Scott Servais said before the game that his team is only focused on the Yankees right in front of them, but this is an important nine-game homestand for the Mariners.
Their first six games after the All-Star break were on the road, and their next nine games after this homestand are also on the road. In fact, the Mariners play just seven home games in August.
Not to mention, the Yankees are ahead of the Mariners in the wild-card standings.
