DETROIT — Mariners star Felix Hernandez was set to return to Seattle to have a stiff right shoulder checked by team doctors after he lasted only two innings in his start at Detroit on Tuesday night.
Hernandez allowed four runs and six hits in Seattle’s 19-9 loss to the Tigers. There was no injury announcement after he was removed from the game, but afterward, manager Scott Servais said the right-hander was dealing with stiffness.
“He had some stiffness in his shoulder going out for the second inning, but there wasn’t any pain,” Servais said. “He said it was more like a dead arm, but there’s obviously some concern when you are talking about a pitcher’s shoulder. He’s been a horse for us, but we have to get this checked out.”
Hernandez made at least 30 starts for the Mariners every season from 2006 through 2015. He made 25 last season, when he missed nearly two months with a calf injury.
“We should know a lot more in a couple days,” Servais said. “At this point, it’s just a dead arm.”
Seattle is on the second stop of a 10-game road trip. The Mariners have five more games to play against the Tigers and Cleveland Indians before returning home.
On Tuesday, James McCann homered in the second inning, then Justin Upton and Alex Avila followed suit in the fourth.
The Detroit Tigers were just getting started.
Detroit added nine more runs in a fifth-inning onslaught , and despite the usual shakiness from the bullpen, the Tigers went on to rout the Mariners.
The teams combined for 40 hits and 14 walks.
“Don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a game like that before,” McCann said.
It was the shortest outing for Hernandez (2-2) since 2015. Detroit finished with 24 hits, 19 of which came in the first five innings. That was despite injuries that kept Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez and Jose Iglesias out of the lineup.
Jordan Zimmermann (2-1) allowed five runs in six innings. Jean Segura, Danny Valencia and Nelson Cruz hit solo homers for Seattle, but that wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with Detroit.
The 40 combined hits broke the Comerica Park record of 38 set by the Tigers and Chicago White Sox on April 13, 2006.
Hernandez squandered an early 2-0 lead, allowing a run in the first and three in the second. McCann’s two-run homer put Detroit ahead 3-2.
It was the shortest outing for Hernandez since he lasted only a third of an inning at Houston on June 12, 2015.
Reliever Chris Heston allowed a two-run homer by Upton in the fourth, then Avila followed with a solo shot to make it 7-2. Segura and Valencia hit consecutive homers for Seattle in the fifth, but the Tigers broke the game open when they sent 13 hitters to the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Segura returned from the disabled list for Seattle and made an immediate contribution, but Hernandez was gone after two innings, and Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger left in the third with a strained oblique.
“That’s a tough game,” second baseman Robinson Cano said. “First we lose Mitch, who has been our best hitter all season, and then we lose Felix, who is our number one pitcher. Those are the two guys we really don’t want to lose.”
