SEATTLE -- In six of their first eight games on this current road trip, a punchless Red Sox lineup scored no more than two runs.
But matched against righthander Felix Hernandez, one of the game's most dominant pitchers, the Red Sox managed to score four runs and hand King Felix his first defeat of the year, with a 4-2 win over the Seattle Mariners.
The Sox got solo homers from Pablo Sandoval (No. 5 in the second) and David Ortiz (No. 5 in the third), then broke through for two runs in the sixth to snap a 2-2 tie and take control of the game.
Rookie catcher Blake Swihart, who had singled off Hernandez in his first at-bat, laced a line double to left center to score Xander Bogaerts. A second run came home on a groundout behind the first base bag by Brock Holt. Hernandez didn't help himself that inning by walking three, two of whom came around to score.
Rick Porcello outpitched Hernandez with 6 2/3 strong innings. His only difficulty came with shortstop Brad Miller, who smacked solo homers off him in the first and fifth.
Porcello struck out six of the first 10 hitters he faced in the first three innings, then didn't record another strikeout. But other than Miller's homers, he allowed just one other Mariner into scoring position. The Red Sox have won each of Porcello's last five starts.
With Porcello at 104 pitches with two outs in the seventh, the bullpen took it from there. Tommy Layne pitched a perfect inning, Junichi Tazawa got Nelson Cruz on a broken-bat soft liner to short and Koji Uehara worked the ninth for his ninth save -- and third in the last four games.
Boston Red Sox
The victory was the Red Sox' fifth in the last seven games. They can clinch a winning record on their longest road trip of the season with a win in the series finale Sunday.