SEATTLE – Felix Hernandez wore an extra ice pack. They’re usually only wrapped around his shoulder, not his calf as well. Despite getting a little physically beat up, Hernandez had no problem shutting down Houston.

Felix Hernandez struck out nine over eight strong innings and Willie Bloomquist hit his first home run since 2011 as the Seattle Mariners beat the Houston Astros 6-1 on Friday night.

Michael Saunders hit a two-run infield single in the seventh inning to lift the Seattle Mariners to a 3-1 win over the Houston Astros on Thursday night.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Chris Young couldn’t overcome a slow start for the Seattle Mariners. He gave up three runs in the first inning and a tiebreaking home run to Shin-Soo Choo in the fifth in a 4-3 loss to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

Chris Young couldn’t overcome a slow start for the Seattle Mariners.

ARLINGTON, Texas – The sight of the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff does wonders for Kyle Seager. The Seattle third baseman had three hits, including a two-run single that sparked a four-run third inning as the Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 6-2 on Tuesday night.

The sight of the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff does wonders for Kyle Seager.

The pending              call-up of Nick Franklin, the Mariners’ IOW (infielder/ outfielder/what- ever), comes at an intriguing juncture in the season. It can be said that a third of the starting lineup from Opening Day isn’t functioning. Yet if the Mariners (21-22) can snag a couple this week in Texas from the injury-blistered Rangers (21-23), they will remain a .500 team despite a slugging percentage from Robinson Cano that trails former Yankees teammate Ichiro (.424 to .406). Remarkable.

You haven’t heard the verb jamesjones? That is the new term for when a team that doesn’t know what it is doing with personnel gets lucky.

MINNEAPOLIS – The formula for success seems so simple: Good starting pitching plus timely hitting with runners on base usually leads to victory on most occasions. But the Mariners had been lacking in that hitting aspect – getting just one hit with runners in scoring position in their last 26 at-bats coming into Sunday’s series finale with the Minnesota Twins.

Felix Hernandez gave the Mariners a brilliant start and Seattle came up with a few hits with runners on base in taking a 6-2 victory over the Twins to snap a four-game losing streak.