Mariners' Hernandez dealing with back stiffness; Cruz turns 38, but how long can he keep hitting?
Felix Hernandez said he stood for the entire game during his Saturday night start against the Kansas City Royals because his back was giving him so much pain.
It didn’t prevent him from starting, but he was clearly grimacing when he picked up a bunt sent his way from the Royals’ Adalberto Mondesi to lead off the fifth inning.
Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais didn’t suggest Hernandez might miss his next scheduled start, especially with an off day on Monday.
“We’ll monitor it,” Servais said Sunday morning. “It loosened up last night. The first inning was obviously not good and the results were bad, too. The ball was up, but we’ll just keep an eye on it.”
Hernandez said he felt it tighten up two days earlier while working out — doing dead lifts — between starts.
He then allowed four consecutive hits to start Saturday’s game, including a three-run home run to Mike Moustakas, though he followed with four consecutive scoreless frames and earned his eighth win with the 6-4 victory.
“It was real bad,” Hernandez said Saturday night. “It was bad.
“I couldn’t even go down on that play (Mondesi’s bunt). I couldn’t sit. I was standing up the whole game and went with a heat pack between innings. … But you know what, I’ll be fine.”
Hernandez had two stints on the disabled list last season because of shoulder inflammation and later shoulder bursitis. He had one trip to the DL in 2016 because of a right calf strain and before that hadn’t missed starts because of injury since 2008.
Hernandez’s five innings pitched Saturday night gives him 100 1/3 innings for the season after he threw 86 2/3 innings all of last year and 153 1/3 the season before that. The previous eight seasons he pitched at least 200 innings in each.
Feliz cumpleanos, Cruz
Nelson Cruz turned 38 Sunday.
Hard to believe? Servais said the Mariners’ slugger is still hitting the ball as hard as he’s ever seen and recently has been running as well as he has since joining the Mariners in 2015.
Although, Cruz said while passing through the Mariners’ clubhouse Sunday morning that he actually just turned 23.
He’s playing like it. Cruz hit 11 home runs in June, which was tied with the Astros’ Alex Bregman (a 24-year-old) for most homers in the month. Cruz also had 24 RBI and batted .326 with a 1.144 OPS (on-base plus slugging) in 26 games in June.
Cruz entered Sunday tied with 26-year-old Aaron Judge for the fourth-most home runs in the American League (21), trialing J.D. Martinez (25), Jose Ramirez (24) and Mike Trout (24).
“Back when I was playing they didn’t have exit velos and stuff, but it’s different when he hits it — it really is,” Servais said. “Some of the balls he hit through the infield I don’t think people realize how hard those are hit. They just don’t have time to react defensively. It’s pretty special.”
Cruz and the Los Angeles Angels’ Albert Pujols are now the only players in the American League who are 38 years old and have at least 10 home runs this season and only six players ages 35-or-older have that many — Edwin Encarnacion (19), Shin-Soo Choo (15), Pujols (12), Ian Kinsler (11) and Yadier Molina (11).
“When I first got here he was not all fired up about becoming an everyday DH,” Servais said. “I think he’s seen the value of that and being able to stay on the field and put up his numbers and help the team.
“Still, most guys start dipping when they get to that 35-year-old range and he hasn’t done that. A lot of it is the fact that he’s a straight DH now and how he takes care of his body and how prepared he is — it’s huge for him.”
Cruz also has the highest OPS (.928) this season of any player 35 or older.
“He went through that dry stretch as far as driving the ball out of the ball park earlier in the year, but he’s got his legs underneath him and he’s running probably as well as he’s run all season,” Servais said.
“But we say that and we’re going into a few interleague games in another week or so and he’ll be lobbying to get in the outfield … but it’s probably not going to happen,” Servais said with a wry smile.
On tap
The Mariners are off Monday before beginning a three-game Safeco Field series against the Los Angeles Angels, who reportedly could have two-way star Shohei Ohtani back, though only as a hitter after suffering a strained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
The Mariners are scheduled to start left-hander Wade LeBlanc (3-0, 3.38 ERA) on Tuesday followed by RHP Mike Leake (8-4, 4.01 ERA) on Wednesday and Marco Gonzales (8-5, 3.77 ERA) on Thursday.
This story was originally published July 1, 2018 at 1:21 PM.