Seattle Mariners Takeaways: How Felix Hernandez Dominated the Padres

It was an entirely forgettable series for the Mariners in San Diego. The team lost both games, and the offense was flat out bad. But there was a silver lining in the two-game sweep: Felix Hernandez looked great.

Now while most of Mariners fandom has been quick to give Felix more credit than he deserved in previous starts, we have been throwing cold water on the idea all year. Fans were so desperate to give Felix a gold star, they overlooked pretty obviously mediocre starts against the Angels.

But on Wednesday in San Diego, “King Felix” was actually good. And not ” Mariners fans want to believe he was so let’s say he was” good. He was really good. But how did he do it against a good lineup just 1 start from a mediocre outing against the pathetic Los Angeles Angels lineup?

First and foremost, Felix Hernandez had excellent control. He threw just 75 pitches in 7 innings of work, 57 of them for strikes. What stood about Felix today was his pitch selection. Of his 75 pitches, Felix threw 2 four-seam fastballs (according to Statcast).

Today, it was all about the curveball. He threw the pitch 29 times, 22 of them for strikes. Of those 22 strikes, 6 were swing and misses. 11 were called strikes. Just one curveball was put in play, and that batted ball came off the bat at just 75.6 MPH.

But one pitch alone cannot produce this dominant of an effort. Felix also heavily featured his changeup today. He threw the pitch 17 times, 13 times for a strike. He got 4 swinging strikes and the pitch was put in play 5 times. The average exit velocity of those pitches was 84.5 MPH, well below average.

Felix also had good sequencing with his pitches. He didn’t try to start everybody off with the curveball. He mixed up his first pitch sequence and got ahead of batters, throwing 21 first-pitch strikes to 25 batters.

Now, there are still some areas of concern. Felix relied heavily on his sinker today. That pitch was put in play nine times with an average exit velocity of 96 MPH. He was able to keep it down around the knees, which makes it a useful pitch. But it is always going to be hit hard if it ends up around the thighs, so Felix must have a near-perfect command of the offering to get value out of it.

Overall, it was an excellent start for Felix Hernandez. Hopefully, we see some carry over to his next start against the Cubs. The game plan was excellent and the execution was near flawless. If Hernandez wants to survive a few more years in the big leagues, this should be the formula going forward.