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

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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