SEATTLE — The ball was handed off quickly and without protest. Felix Hernandez was done. This couldn’t be fixed or righted, not with his command and not against this team. There was no use in trying to fight to remain in the game.

Head down and frustrated, he walked with his gaze fixed at his feet all the way to the dugout. There wasn’t much in the way of either applause or booing. Most of the 30,178 fans at Safeco Field grumbled with discomfort at what they had just seen.

Misplaced pitches, innings filled with base runners, hits and runs had overwhelmed the hope for a night of magic in one of the few truly important outings of Hernandez’s career.

Everything that the Mariners had done to get to the importance of Friday night with its postseason implications—starting pitching giving them a chance to win, quality at-bats leading to base runners and passels of runs and overall clean play—were absent in a 6-0 loss to the Houston Astros.

The drab defeat ended an eight-game winning streak and dropped Seattle to 78-67 and three games back in the American League wild card race.

For the third time this season, the Mariners came into a game with their record 10 games over .500 and all three times they’ve lost.

Seattle’s issues Friday started with the Mariners’ ace.

He’s had three ultra-meaningful start in his lengthy career counting Friday. The first two came in 2014. On Sept. 23 that year with the Mariners having lost three in a row and fighting for a wild-card chance, Hernandez gave up eight runs (four earned) in 42/3 innings pitched in a 10-2 loss to Toronto. And those unearned runs were a result of his throwing error.

But on the final day of the 2014 season with the Mariners in a must-win scenario in hopes of forcing a playoff game with the A’s to earn a wild card, Hernandez pitched 51/3 shutout innings, allowing just one hit against the Angels before getting lifted after the A’s clinched a wild-card spot with a win in Texas.

But his start against the Astros looked more like the big loss against Toronto. He pitched 41/3 innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Some might lament his inability to pitch in big games despite the minimal sample size. Besides being somewhat illogical, it would also overlook the larger issue that hurt him in the loss—Hernandez has had command problems all season and for large parts of last season because of mechanical breakdowns.

That wandering command that has left Hernandez, the Mariners and their fans shaking their head in frustration. The startlingly inconsistency was an issue from the start of Friday’s game. For every crisp, commanded strike there were at least two to three pitches that resembled nothing of their intent or purpose.

His sinker was particularly mediocre, leaking over the plate and lacking crisp movement. The four extra-base hits he gave up all scored runs: two doubles and two homers that came on sinkers.

After two very quick outs that used a total of seven pitches, Hernandez needed 14 more to get the final out of the first inning. He gave up a bloop single to his hitting nemesis Jose Altuve and walked Carlos Correa before getting Evan Gattis to ground out. It was one of two scoreless innings that Hernandez would work in the game.

A leadoff walk and a drag bunt from Marwin Gonzalez in which Hernandez didn’t seem interested in covering first and Robinson Cano was late in doing so eventually set up a two-run double from Jake Marisnick in the second inning.

An error by Ketel Marte on an Altuve ground ball was quickly turned into a run on Carlos Correa’s double left on a sinker to make it 3-0 in the third. The Astros continued to add, picking up a run in the fourth inning and knocking Hernandez out of the game with solo homers from Evan Gattis and Gonzalez to make it 6-0.

And while there will certainly be debate and derision among fans about the future of Hernandez, the Mariners’ offense—or lack thereof—cannot be overlooked.

Astros starter Collin McHugh proved once against to masterful against the Mariners and middling vs. most other teams. McHugh tossed seven shutout innings, allowing two hits with two walks and six strikeouts to improve to 11-10. The Mariners hit about two hard balls off him. In four starts against the Mariners, he’s 4-0 with a 1.08 ERA, 24 strikeouts and eight walks in 25 innings.