It was a two-hit complete game 7-0 shut out over the potent Yankees lineup, 115 pitches and everything in his arsenal. As he said, “the slider, curveball, just tried to throw as many strikes as I could.” The Yankees could do nothing and seemed frustrated as they returned to the dugout.

Hernandez would not compare his performance to Lee. What mattered was the Mariners once again got two consecutive complete games from Lee and Hernandez.  And it was the second time this season that Lee and Hernandez won back-to[back games.

It was the third straight complete game for Hernandez, two of them going as a win. Lee got the win Tuesday evening in the Bronx, his third consecutive complete game. “It happens, it happens,” said Hernandez about what he and Lee accomplished over the Yankees the past two nights.

Was there an incentive to top what Lee did? “We’re different pitchers,” said Hernandez who has a career 15-3 record in the month of June. The 24-year old native of Valencia Venezuela also had 11 strikeouts and as play concluded moved to second in that department in the American League.

More importantly, as the Yankees have discovered, if the Mariners continue to get this type of pitching from Lee and Hernandez, well they can make some noise in the second half of the season.

“You talk about the impact that Lee has on this pitching staff, I think it pushes Felix,” commented Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu. “I thought it was the best pure stuff that Felix has shown in a game.  He really dominated and kept their hitters off balance. It was a tremendous performance.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said about Hernandez “He’s as good as we have seen all year. His slider, changeup and curveball, he had it all working tonight. He’s got electric stuff.”

Hernandez finished the month of June with a 4-1 record and a 2.36 ERA and over his last four starts is 3-0 with a 1.26 ERA. “We knew his ability was there,” added Wakamatsu. “The key thing was getting the complete games.  Every time you have an outing like this it’s something to look back on and learn from it.”

The last time the Yankees had back-to-back complete games thrown against them was back in April of 2000 when Toronto’s Chris Carpenter and Kelvin Escobar did it up in Toronto. And it has not happened in consecutive home games since 1991.

Said Girardi, “Good pitching will always beat good hitting; that’s the bottom line.”  For the Mariners the bottom line is getting the rest of their pitching staff to follow in the footsteps of Lee and Hernandez.

e-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com

 

 

I guess I should be gracious and congratulated the Highlanders on not only winning the World Series but finally putting an end to this miserable baseball season, and thankful they ended before the season’s first snowfall.

 

For all of my fellow Mets fans who wanted Pedro Martinez on the team to fill a starters spot, and second thoughts? Even though Hideki Matsui has not had much success against Petey over the years, the way the at bat was going in the second inning you just knew Matsui was going to tag him. Matsui was like a boxer sizing up his opponent, jabbing, jabbing with foul balls, then just missing with a left but the jabbing again then going for the knockout with the home run.

 

The best line I read all morning came from Mike Vaccaro when talking about whether Charlie Manuel should have pulled Petey in third before Matsui plated two more runs with a single:

 

     Everyone inside the ballpark knew that Martinez had no shot against Matsui, who’d gotten so many great swings in that first at-bat, Then he pulverized a Pedro pitch that barely fell foul down the right-field line, missing a bases-clearing double by inches.

It was here, if Pedro’s name was Pete Martin and he wasn’t a proud future Hall of Famer, Charlie Manuel might have said “Enough!” and gone with a left-hander like the warming J.A. Happ to try to finish the at-bat and keep the Phillies close. But this isn’t Pete Martin. It’s Pedro Martinez. And he tried to sneak a fastball past Matsui that wouldn’t stay snuck. A two-run single followed. And the first bursts of bedlam fell from the stands.

 

Remember the praise I gave McCarver after Game 1? Well I would like to retract the compliment as Mac-C transformed back into Tim McFullofshit the rest of the way.

 

Remember back, oh about nine years ago when Matt Franco was a Met? Wasn’t it known that his uncle was none other than actor Kurt Russell? And didn’t Russell parade around in a Mets cap during the 2000 World Series? But now that his “step-daughter” Kate Hudson is shacking up with Alex Centaur-riguez he’s cheering for the Highlanders like he grew up on the Grand Concourse. And what’s up with Rudy Giulliani and his wax figure wife (and that hair Geez Louise Judy G find a stylist will ya!) looking like a couple waiting for the early bird special. And why does Rudy squint like that all time making that rat face?

 

 

 

 

Now that the 2009 baseball season is over, let’s role up our sleeves and get to work we got a lot to do. Grab a shovel!!!!