SEATTLE — It took two good swings by two very good hitters, as well as a balky ankle, but eight starts into his 2015 season, Felix Hernandez was actually beatable.
I came to Safeco Field Saturday night planning to write about Hernandez’s greatness. Many of the 45,055 in attendance came to witness it in person. The best pitcher in Seattle Mariners’ history is off to the best start of his career, making him, along with Nelson Cruz, one of the few constants in a very bumpy first six weeks of the 2015 season. Eleven seasons into his decorated career, the five-time All-Star is pitching as well as he ever has.
But then a strange thing happened. Hernandez, who came into the game with a 6-0 record and a 1.85 earned-run average, looked downright mediocre. The King, on this night, was a commoner. As expected, Hernandez was frustrated with his six-inning outing in which he gave up four runs and most uncharacteristically, walked four batters in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox.
“I don’t care about the homers,” he said. “I just care about the walks; that’s all.”
For those watching, however, the reaction to Hernandez’s outing was less likely one of anger and more one of bewilderment, which is just another sign of how good Hernandez has been not just this season, but for most of his career. It’s shocking to see him struggle.
Facing Pablo Sandoval, who had homered off of him earlier in the game, Hernandez winced a bit two pitches into the sixth, prompting a visit from manager Lloyd McClendon and trainer Rob Nodine. Hernandez stayed in the game — because unless there’s a risk of serious injury, a Cy Young winner with a decade of service gets to decide if he’s OK — but after struggling a bit with his command all night, things turned worse for the Mariners ace. He walked three batters in the inning, something he has done just eight times in a career.
“Oh my god, that’s frustrating,” he said. “That’s not me.”
And the Red Sox turned those three walks and a Blake Swihart double into the two runs that decided the game.
Hernandez, a stand-up guy his entire career, refused to blame his ankle for the struggles, saying, “The whole game, I fell behind a lot of times. My command wasn’t there. … Not the ankle, just me.” But McClendon did see a different pitcher in that inning.
“He tweaked his ankle a little bit,” McClendon said. “He told me he was OK, but I’m not sure if it didn’t affect him a little bit with his command. He seemed to lose his command after that a little bit.”
Yet even if McClendon saw a struggling pitcher after that trip to the mound, he wasn’t going to pull Hernandez without letting him work out of trouble in the sixth. Hernandez has earned the right to make that call, even if on very rare occasions it backfires.
“I trust him,” McClendon said. “He’s my guy, I trust him.”
Hernandez wasn’t a disaster on Saturday night. The Red Sox didn’t spray the ball around the field, though David Ortiz and Sandoval did both homer; he didn’t blow up and get pulled after two or three innings, but on a night when his run support consisted of two good swings from Brad Miller, Hernandez was ordinary enough to lose his first game of 2015.
Not only was this Hernandez’s first loss of 2015, it was the first time Seattle has lost a game he started this season, a remarkable stat considering they are just 10-19 in games started by anyone else this year.
The fourth-youngest pitcher in major-league history to 2,000 strikeouts and the best pitcher in Mariners’ history wasn’t his usual dominant self Saturday. He was unusually ordinary, if that makes sense. Even the best athletes are entitled to an occasional off night, and Hernandez will surely bounce back. In the meantime, a rare night when the King looked human serves as a reminder of just how good we have it getting to watch greatness perform (almost) every fifth day.
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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