Felix is finally king for the day
Hernandez throws six shutout innings in his best start of the season
SEATTLE — Felix Hernandez rediscovered some of his past form allowing two hits over six dominant innings and Nelson Cruz hit his 17th home run of the season to give the Seattle Mariners a 4-0 win Sunday over the Oakland Athletics.
Making his fourth start since coming off the disabled list last month, Hernandez had the best command of his pitches perhaps all season.
Hernandez struck out a season-high eight, including a stretch with four of five outs retired via the strikeout in the fourth and fifth innings. Hernandez had better separation in the speeds between his fastball in the low 90s and a changeup in the mid 80s and an excellent curveball.
Hernandez (4-3) allowed only a third-inning double to Matt Joyce and a two-out single to Jaycob Brugman in the fifth.
Tony Zych, Marc Rzepczynski, Nick Vincent and Edwin Diaz got the final nine outs for Seattle’s eighth shutout of the season.
Cruz’s home run came in the fourth inning and followed Robinson Cano’s double leading off the inning against Oakland starter Daniel Gossett. After going more than a month without a homer, Cruz has homered in three of the past five games.
Gossett (1-4) was pulled after 41/3 innings, giving up three runs and five hits. He had pitched at least six innings in two of his previous three starts.
Seattle also got a run in the third inning thanks to the speed of Jarrod Dyson and his aggressive base running, going from first to third on Carlos Ruiz’s single to left-centre field. Dyson scored when Jean Segura grounded into a double-play. Ruiz had a three-hit game and added an RBI single in the seventh inning.
Seattle closed out the pre-allstar break portion of the schedule at 43-47, but was just 4-10 over the final 14 games prior to the break, including 2-9 at home.
Oakland was shutout for the fifth time this season and at 39-50 has the ninth-worst record in club history since moving to Oakland. They are 21 games behind in the division, the second-largest deficit the club has faced at the break since moving to Oakland.
Cruz’s home run give him an AL-best 70 RBIs at the all-star break. He’s the seventh different player in club history to reach that mark before the break, but the first to do so since Raul Ibanez in 2006.
Seattle will start after the all-star break with James Paxton on the mound followed by Hernandez and likely rookie Andrew Moore. The fourth pitcher in the rotation is expected to be Ariel Miranda, who was the only Seattle starter to stay healthy throughout the first half of the season.