Mariners Greatest Hits: “The King” Felix Hernandez Top Performances

June 30th, 2010

Backed by a complete effort on the offensive side of the ball, Hernandez lit up the New York Yankees and Yankee Stadium with his mesmerizing electric repertoire this evening.

Coming off of an impressive 2009 campaign in which Hernandez finished 2nd in the American League Cy Young voting, the Venezuelan-native clearly wanted to prove that he could win the award the next season.

This mid-summer game against the Yankees was one of the many highlights of his Cy Young year and was arguably one of his best games ever.

Up to this point in his career, Hernandez had allowed two hits or fewer in six games. After five years and about 150 games, Hernandez was about to achieve this feat for just the 7th time.

The 2010 Yankees were a force to be reckoned with combining for the highest-powered offense that year averaging 5.3 runs per game. By year’s end, they would have the third-best record in all of baseball and would make it all the way to the ALCS.

That didn’t stop the lowly Mariners who, at the time of the June 30th game, had the 3rd worst record in the league while the Yankees had the best.

The Mariners took the first game of the series with a convincing 7-4 victory. The next night, with Hernandez on the mound, the Bronx Bombers would struggle to score one run, and would rarely have a man on base.

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You wouldn’t have known that Hernandez was going to have such a great game after a shaky 1st inning. He started the night by walking two of the 1st five batters he faced and threw a wild pitch. Whatever transpired in the dugout after that poor start would flip his outing on its head.

Over the next three frames, Hernandez would fan three batters (one in each inning) while surrendering just one hit (a double to Mark Teixeira).

After allowing another two-bagger in the 5th to Colin Curtis, Hernandez would kick his game into high gear.

Of the last 15 batters he faced that night, only one would reach base, and the was via a free pass. He would strikeout five of those men to finish with a tally of 11 K’s.

After that rough beginning, Hernandez would finish the night with a line of 9IP, 2H, 3BB, and 11K.

It was his 11th career complete game up to that point and his 5th career shutout. It was also his 7th career double-digit strikeout performance; he was one K away from tying his personal-best of 12 K’s set back in 2007.

It was one of “The King’s” best games during his best year. That night he was able to take on the best the league had to offer and make them look like minor leaguers.

April 11th, 2007

Before he won any Cy Young award or was even an All-Star, Hernandez was finding his stride in his 2nd full season with the Mariners.

Having just wowed the Mariners faithful in his first Opening Day start, Hernandez was about to have an encore performance that would blow all of his starts before it out of the water.

Facing the mighty Boston Red Sox, a team that would go on to have the 3rd best record in the American League that year, the Mariners had a major battle ahead of them.

The three years prior to 2007, the M’s finished with a record below .500 and would not finish closer to the AL West Divison leaders than 15 games.

Yet, with the season not even 10 games in, it was as if the teams were on level ground, and the Mariners were sending their newly anointed ace to the mound to prove they were a team to be feared.

Hernandez would take the mound following his line of 8IP, 3H, 2BB, 12K and would make that look like child’s play.

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He would dismiss the first eight Red Sox he faced, striking out three of those men. He would then hit a minor bump, walking two of the next three men he faced, but would regain his composure and settle into a real groove.

Hernandez would easily take care of the next 11 men mostly by inducing groundball outs. While he did fan two guys during this span, he would send seven of the Red Sox back to the dugout on grounders.

Rolling along with such ease, Hernandez was in line to throw a no-hitter through seven innings. If not for the leadoff batter in the eighth, J.D. Drew, he would have done it.

Drew would start the 8th by smacking a ball with enough muster to roll into the outfield past the shortstop, Yuniesky Betancourt.

The lone hit would amount to nothing for the Red Sox as Hernandez would close out the game sending the last six batters packing.

This was the first time that he would allow fewer than two hits while pitching at least five innings and it would be the last time until one of the most historic days in Mariners history.

August 15th, 2012

This day has gone down in Mariners history as arguably one of the most memorable days in the franchise’s 40-year existence.

It was the 23rd time in baseball history for an event like this to take place and it was done by the Mariners greatest pitcher, one of their greatest heroes, Felix Hernandez.

Early in the year, the Mariners were the victims of a perfect game, now they would be the ones spoiling the day of the Tampa Rays who were about to be on the wrong side of a perfect game for the 3rd time in the last three seasons.

You could sense that Hernandez could pitch a perfect game as he came to the mound even though the Rays, under Joe Maddon’s management, were in the midst of their best stretch of baseball ever.

Hernandez had already pitched three complete game shutouts by this mid-august affair, twice tossing double-digit K’s and once setting a career-high with 13 punch outs.

And they weren’t facing lightweight talent either. One of those games was against a 2012 playoff team, the Texas Rangers.

Through the first three innings, Hernandez was rolling tossing two strikeouts, three groundball outs, and four flyball outs. He hadn’t allowed a hit or a walk and only reached a three-ball count once.

Through the middle three innings, Hernandez got his strikeout game going fanning five of the nine men he faced via the K. In the 6th, he completely shut down the Rays as he struck out the side on 15 pitches.

He still had not allowed a hit or a walk, and the most pressure he faced was when Sam Fuld forced a full count, but would eventually lineout to Kyle Seager.

In the final third of the game with history on the line, Hernandez continued to fan players with ease. He would strike out five of the last six batters he would face including the all-important 27th man of the day, Sean Rodrigeuz to ink his name in history.

It was one of those moments that Mariners fans can tell you where they were and what they were doing when it happened.

It will be a moment that will get passed down for generations of Mariners fans as one of the greatest days in the team’s history, and it came from the greatest M’s pitcher of all-time, Felix Hernandez.

That ends our list of the greatest outings of Felix Hernandez. He has done so many amazing things over the past 12 years, and he will surely continue his stellar play in the years to come.

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