Felix Hernandez plays for the Seattle Mariners. From a pitching perspective, that just about necessitates perfection. Hernandez leads the world in the unofficial stat of 1-0 complete game shutouts (three of his four shutouts this year have been 1-0, now two in his last three starts), and has also thrown one-, two-, and three-hitters this season as well. Felix has been just about as good as it gets without quite attaining perfection. Until now.
The baggy pants-wearing, crooked capped badass did it his way, too. He struck out 12 en route to mowing down the Rays with relative ease. The scariest moment came as Sam Fuld led off the game with a drive to right center, forcing Eric Thames to make an excellent catch. Brenden Ryan, as he is wont to do, combined great concentration and fantastic range to deny B.J. Upton a cheap infield hit in the 7th, and that was it for drama. The King struck out the side in the 6th and 8th innings, and finished the feat with a nasty 92 mph change that froze Sean Rodriguez.
After Phil Humber stumbled upon perfection, it was great to see a guy like Matt Cain take care of business. Hernadez’s accomplishment is just as sweet. The guy has labored for years, surrounded by anemic offenses. This year is no different, but at least now he’s notched a perfecto.
That’s all for now, I’m sure our resident Mariners expert will have plenty to say on this topic tomorrow. He’d have written this piece himself, but he’s still partying at Safeco.
-Ari Glantz
