SEATTLE ? Whether you call him Felix Hernandez or "Larry Bernandez," he's still the king
Felix Hernandez's 2010 American League Cy Young Award was a big win for the stats-over-wins crowd, coming as it did for a pitcher with a 13-12 record (the lowest win total for any pitcher in a non-shortened season). Some who abide by the more traditional numbers couldn't see a guy with that record taking the coveted award, but when you lead the majors in ERA (2.27), and the AL in innings pitched (249 2/3) and opponent batting average (.212), it's a lot tougher to argue against his candidacy. Hernandez was simply victimized by a team that gave him no offensive support, and he transcended that fact to be recognized as one of the greats of the game.
A season later, little has changed. Hernandez is still one of baseball's best and the Seattle Mariners still can't hit for the most part, and as the Mariners' ace, Hernandez is usually set against the best pitchers other teams have to offer. That was the case on Thursday night at Safeco Field, when the M's took the field against the Tampa Bay Rays, and Hernandez went up against James Shields. The two were tied for the AL lead with 81 strikeouts apiece going in, and Shields had a better ERA (2.15) than Hernandez (3.19) or the Rays' acknowledged ace, David Price (3.52).
Hernandez, like Price, enjoys the specter of a second pitcher on his heels, but he's been "The King" in Seattle through all the mordant recent years of Seattle; the franchise's crowning glory through an era of seemingly endless personnel missteps. In fact, he's so good, it appears as if he's attempting to clone himself.
Unlike Michael Pineda the day before, Hernandez threw 90-and-above heat to start out, giving up a double to the uber-hot Matt Joyce, and striking out Evan Longoria and then B.J. Upton to finish the first inning. He met his match in Shields, who struck out Ichiro and Brendan Ryan in the first, ending that inning with a weak Justin Smoak grounder to first. Hernandez resolved some inconsistent strike zone issues early on to excel in the second, which Shields couldn't match, giving up a 415-foot homer to Jack Cust to lead off the bottom of the second.
For Shields, it all went downhill from there. Center fielder Franklin Gutierrez reached on a throwing error by shortstop Reid Brignac, then a single by Adam Kennedy to get Gutierrez to second, then the returning Chone Figgins jumped out of his season-long slump for a brief moment with a single to right, which plated Gutierrez. A three-run homer by Carlos Peguero (his first of two in this game, just one day after manager Eric Wedge complained about the productivity coming out of left field).
Shields followed that little disaster with two straight walks in the third, and a double by Kennedy that scored Jack Cust. The pitcher who used to have the third-best ERA in the American League matched his season high for runs in the second (five) and exceeded it in the third. He finished his outing with eight runs allowed in just four innings, and was relieved by Juan Cruz to start the bottom of the fifth.
And given that kind of lead (more runs than in his last three starts combined), Hernandez dealt smoke from there on out. His off-speed stuff was dropping with a vengeance, especially on the pitch that struck out first baseman Felipe Lopez to end the fourth inning. In the fifth, everything was low and nasty; Hernandez struck out catcher Kelly Shoppach and second baseman Ben Zobrist in succession to end that frame. He lost it a bit in the sixth -- the pitches started scattering a bit and the Felix shutout was lost on three singles in that inning. But a double play in the seventh ended his night with a far better line than Shields' -- five hits, one run and 11 strikeouts.
Just another ordinary day for the King.
Rays manager Joe Maddon, while trying to mitigate a performance by his own sub-ace that he attributed to overthrowing limiting his command, had nothing but good so say about "the other guy." "That's why I set up the lineup I did, trying to get points from the top and hoping that two or three runs would have been enough. I really had that thought prior to the game."
Hernandez's performance was "typical," Maddon said, when I asked him about it. "I thought he had good depth on ... whatever that is. That pitch that sinks, and it's 90-91 [mph] off of his fastball and his slider. He was typically aggressive, with typically great stuff, and when you permit him to go into cruise control, it's worse for you and better for him. There was really no strain on him tonight, with that five-run inning. That's the unfortunate part; that we couldn't possibly work it in a closer ballgame. Of course he's good in a closer ballgame, and it could have been a bit different, but he was really good."
Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach, who went 0 for 3 on the night (dropping his average to .146), was a bit more succinct about Hernandez's outing. When one member of the media asked him how good Hernandez was, Shoppach smiled ruefully, gave a little chuckle, and said, "What a [expletive] question. Well, we knocked him out of the game after seven innings and 11 strikeouts."
Shoppach was more philosophical about Shields. "He wasn't as sharp, and we've talked about that all year ? when he comes out of his delivery, the ball stays up over the plate. It flattens out and gives them a chance. We can't expect this guy to throw a shutout and nine innings every time. As good as he's been, and as well as he's thrown the ball this year, did we think that he'd go through the whole season without giving up a five-spot? Sure, we'd love to say that, but this is a hard game to play."
It's been less hard for a Mariners team that is starting to see a bit of sunlight sneaking though after a longstanding brand of bad baseball. The five-run inning, the four homers in the game, Carlos Peguero snapping an 0-for-14 streak with his two dingers (both he and Jack Cust were trending on Twitter for a short while Thursday night), and the overall offensive explosion was a welcome relief after so many anemic days of run production.
That said, it's very clear that this team will go precisely as far as Felix Hernandez leads them. And the more games like this the Mariners see, the better that future starts to look.
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