That Felix Hernandez kid sure can pitch. I remember when I first saw him pitch live when Seattle was playing in Toronto in Sept. of 2005 (I was on co-op in Toronto at the time). All he did was go out and throw 6 innings of no-hit ball until it was broken up in the 7th.
The lone run Hernandez gave up was unearned and its not like he was wiggling out of jams all night. He only gave up 4 hits and walked 1 while striking out 8. The only sort of trouble he got into was in the 6th when the Jays had 2nd and 3rd 1 out w/the 3 and 4 hitters coming up. Hernandez struck out Wells and Stairs grounded out. A Cy Young is not too far off in the distance if he can just stay healthy for an entire season.
Not to be outdone, Marcum was matching Hernandez pitch-for-pitch. Marcum went
7, giving up 7 hits and walking 2 (1 intentional) while striking out 9. Marcum was actually a run ahead until the Betancourt triple tied it. Lucky for him Reed was caught off 2nd and got doubled up the batter prior. Marcum also managed to strike Ichiro Suzuki out twice and Suzuki has shown over the past few years he is one of the toughest players in baseball to strikeout.
Marcum left taking the no decision while thanks to Seattle’s run in the 9th Hernandez ended up a winner.
The Jays bullpen was shaky in this game issuing walks left and right. Downs came in to pitch the 8th and walked the bases loaded but gave up nothing else. Ryan pitched the 9th but he walked 2 before giving up a single to Ibanez w/2 outs to give the Mariners the lead. Ryan has been walking an alarmingly high # of batters this season. I’m not sure if he is just pitching more careful to batters this year since his velocity seems to be down just slightly from pre-TJ surgery or maybe he has altered his pitching motion causing him to throw more balls. Whatever it is hopefully he finds more consistent command b/c you hate to watch your closer give guys free passes (why else did so many Jays fans not like Miguel Batista as closer).
As for the stats:
NAdv: Johjima
P-NAdv: Marcum (5)
DE: Inglett (1)
ME(r): Reed
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