"It's never a good idea to place October importance upon June baseball, although the Seattle Mariners had the chance Saturday night to see what pitting their ace against the National League's best might look like.

It was great baseball - and a loss.

The Philadelphia Phillies relentlessly pressured Felix Hernandez, dominated the Mariners' offense and scored four runs in the last three innings to beat Seattle, 5-1.

With a Safeco Field crowd of 35,829 on hand, there was a postseason feel much of the night - strange, to be sure, for a stadium that hasn't seen a playoff game since 2001.

The Mariners started their ace, and it wasn't that Hernandez didn't have his best. It was a matter of the Phillies flashing the tenacity and determination that has resulted in more wins than any team in baseball.

They took good pitches. They fouled off good pitches. They put men on base and perpetually forced Felix to make great pitches to keep the game even.

Philadelphia scored a run in the first inning on a Ryan Howard sacrifice fly, which delivered his 58th RBI.

Seattle countered in the second inning with the first big-league home run from rookie second baseman Dustin Ackley - who now has one RBI.

And there the score stayed, 1-1.

Once and for all, Hernandez may have answered the question, "Just how good is Felix?"

"Felix is about as good as anyone at limiting the damage, and he did that tonight," manager Eric Wedge said.

Against the Phillies, he had only one inning in which he retired the side in order and seemed in one jam or another all game. And until the seventh inning - when Shane Victorino's opposite-field bloop hit chalk on the foul line - Felix scrambled out of it.

For instance, after Howard opened the fourth inning with a double, Hernandez struck out Placido Polanco, got Raul Ibañez on a ground ball and struck out Ross Gload.

It was the kind of escape he needed all game because inning after inning the Phillies came after him."