Felix Hernandez broke a franchise record in his latest start but didn't get enough support to match a second.

The Seattle Mariners ace tries again to tie Jamie Moyer's wins mark as the Mariners welcome the Kansas City Royals to Safeco Field on Friday night.

Hernandez surpassed Randy Johnson's team strikeout record Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels, finishing with 2,166, but suffered a 4-2 defeat.

"It's an honor to be up there. but we lost the game," Hernandez told MLB's official website. "I don't care about the record. We lost the game."

Hernandez (1-2, 1.80 ERA) allowed three runs - on a pair of homers - in his seven innings while perhaps dealing with the effects of the flu, which caused his start to be pushed back one day.

"I think we know what to expect out of Felix, even coming back from being sick," manager Scott Servais said. "He looked good. You could tell when he walked in here today that he was ready to go and ready to compete and give us a great effort, which he did."

Hernandez will make another attempt to match Moyer's 145 victories while leading Seattle (11-10) to its seventh win in nine games. He appears to have a chance at getting better run support this time with Robinson Cano heating up at the plate.

The second baseman had two home runs and nine RBIs in the Mariners' final two games against Houston but Seattle dropped Wednesday's finale of that three-game set 7-4. Cano's eight home runs have matched his career high for April and his 24 RBIs are the most in that month.

"Compared to last year, I was slow in the first month in the first half," said Cano, who had two homers and 22 RBIs in his first 67 games in 2015. "Some days it works, and sometimes you got to go home and try to get stronger in those situations."

Kansas City (12-9) was outscored 19-7 in a three-game sweep at the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals had 10 hits Wednesday but went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position in a 4-2 defeat, their fifth in a row on the road.

They haven't lost six straight away from home since Sept. 13-28, 2012.

"You look at it, we're not swinging the bats right now," manager Ned Yost said. "It's just one of those things you have to kind of wait out until guys get hot. ... We're just not getting that timely hit."

Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer and went 3 for 4 to extend his hit streak to a career-best 17 games. Hosmer, batting .358 with nine extra-base hits during his run, has a .318 average in his last 21 games against the Mariners and a .326 mark in his last 11 in Seattle.

He has one hit in his last six at-bats versus Hernandez. Lorenzo Cain, batting .152 in his last nine games, is 0 for 6 lifetime against him.

Kris Medlen (1-1, 6.00) will make his first appearance against Seattle and is coming off one of the worst performances of his career. He was charged with seven runs in 3 2/3 innings Saturday in an 8-3 loss in Baltimore.

Hernandez has lost his last two starts against the Royals and gave up four runs in 6 2/3 innings in his lone matchup last season, a 4-1 defeat in Seattle on June 22.

Kansas City went 4-2 against the Mariners last season, winning two of three at Safeco.