ARLINGTON, Texas — The waning hope for salvaging a win to make the four-hour flight back to Seattle somewhat tolerable and an abysmal road trip seem a sliver less painful ended when Texas outfielder Carlos Gomez actually made solid contact with a baseball. It’s something that has been issue for him over the last 150 games he’s played. This season he’s struck out 111 times in just over 300 at-bats.

But in the midst of this current fight against the descent into mediocrity, the Mariners are subject to such anomalies. So when Gomez hit a grand slam off Seattle ace Felix Hernandez in the fourth inning for a 6-0 lead in what ended up being a 14-1 loss to the Rangers, the game was effectively over. The only real question was how much Seattle would lose by and if it could muster a run.

“It was not our day,” manager Scott Servais said. “It got out of hand late. … They took it to us.”

It was the fifth straight loss for the Mariners, who finished 1-6 on the road trip and have lost nine of their past 11 games to fall to 68-65. Seattle has now been swept in back-to-back three-game series at Globe Life Park and is 4-11 vs. the Rangers this season.

“It was a rough trip,” Servais said. “There is no doubt. We knew it was going to be a challenging trip for us with pitching we were up against. There were a couple of games we would have liked to hung on and win, but it didn’t happen.”

After Tuesday night’s 8-7 walkoff loss, Hernandez’s job was to detoxify any residual emotional hangover from the defeat with a solid outing while not having much relief help behind him. It’s the job of an ace. It’s a job he embraces. It’s a job he’s done before.

Yet, Hernandez never made it to the fifth inning.

“It wasn’t good. I was terrible for my part. I should have went out there and stepped up a little bit more and get my level up. I made a lot of mistakes. I walked a lot of people. I just left one pitch out over the plate and Gomez hit a homer.”

A pitch-count bloating, mind-numbing, 41-pitch marathon in the fourth inning in 92 degree heat, featuring Gomez’s grand slam, pretty much ended Hernandez’s day.

He had already given up a run before the fourth inning. A leadoff walk to Gomez, which isn’t easy to do and was aided by a poor 3-2 pitch call from home plate ump Todd Tichenor, allowed Texas to manufacture a run. Gomez stole second, moved to third on a ground ball and scored on Nomar Mazara’s ground ball out to second.

But it all fell apart in the fourth.

Hernandez gave up a shift-beating leadoff single to Carlos Beltran and walked Adrian Beltre to start the inning. He got Rougned Odor to fly out to center, but walked Mitch Moreland to load the bases. Elvis Andrus singled to left to score a run to make it 2-0. With a 0-1 count, Hernandez had a changeup betray him. It stayed up in the zone and Gomez — as he always does — swung for it all.

“It was a bad pitch,” Hernandez said.

After a walk and two ground ball outs, Hernandez (9-5) finally walked off the mound. His day would be done, having given up six runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts. That last few strong outings were nowhere to be found.

“They have a pretty good offense, but I got enough pitches and if I have everything working, I feel like I can get those guys out,” he said.

The Mariners’ lone run came in the eighth inning. Seager belted his 25th homer — a solo shot to center to make it 10-1.

“Texas is an aggressive team and they are swinging,” Servais said. “When they have a lead like that, they certainly aren’t backing off.