Felix Hernandez’s final 2018 start stresses why this offseason is most critical of his career

Felix Hernandez was on a pitch count and coming off a strained hamstring that had kept him out of the Seattle Mariners’ rotation since Sept. 8, so they weren’t expecting blast-from-the-past, point-to-the-sky Hernandez to end what has been a tumultuous 2018.

But Wednesday night was more of the same of a career-worst season in just about every way for Hernandez. For consistency sake, he even allowed a first-inning home run, with Marcus Semien getting a 91-mph fastball down the pipe.

Hernandez would toss four-plus innings and was charged for five runs, four earned (on his own error) on three hits with two walks and four strikeouts in his final start of 2018, with the Mariners losing to the Oakland Athletics, 9-3, at Safeco Field.

“I just don’t want to think about this year,” Hernandez said. “I just got to go into the offseason and relax and prepare for next year and see where we go from there.”

Yet, even with his ERA ballooning to 5.55, he walked off the field after allowing another run and leaving two on with no outs in the fifth inning to an ovation from the fans at Safeco Field behind the Mariners’ dugout.

After all, he’s still Hernandez. He did officially become a U.S. citizen this week, has always expressed his love for Seattle and on this chilly September night with the Mariners inching closer to a 17th consecutive season without a playoff appearance, Hernandez did strike out the side in the top of the third to move past Mark Langston into 37th on MLB’s career strikeouts list.

But next year has to change. The Mariners simply cannot survive another year of this kind of Hernandez.

“It was good to see Felix out there before the season completes, but I’m sure he would have liked to have a little better results,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “That’s kind of what we saw for the majority of the year, and not a good ball game tonight.”

Compare this, where the Mariners are now, with what designated hitter Nelson Cruz said after Hernandez’s Opening Day start in a win over the Indians back in March:

“If we want to take this to the next level, we have to count on him,” Cruz said.

And for the most part the Mariners’ starting rotation performed above expectations, except for Hernandez, who last month was even demoted to the bullpen in likely the lowest point of his career.

Next season is the final year on Hernandez’s seven-year, $175 million contract.

“Felix is certainly looking at making some adjustments in what he’s done and he’s tried a number of different things,” Servais said. “He does have another year on his contact and I know he wants to finish strong and it will be up to him.

“I’ve talked to a number of different players about their offseason and how they have to take ownership of their career and where they are at. Certainly we have suggestions and you have conversations on where you would like guys to go and you got to commit.

“You got to commit to do it. If you’re going to make major changes in your game, it does need to happen in the offseason. Not just Felix, but a number of our guys. We need to get better.”

Semien’s first-inning homer was the 11th home run hit off of Hernandez in the first frame this year, which is tied with the Rockies’ Tyler Anderson for most in the major leagues.

Hernandez’s first-inning ERA is 8.16, which is the seventh-highest among pitchers with at least 20 starts.

“I wish I had an answer,” Servais said. “If we did, we would have tried, and we tried a number of different things.”

An inning later Chad Pinder shot a home run off Hernandez to straightaway center field for a 2-0, A’s lead.

But he followed that by striking out Semien, Jed Lowrie and Kris Davis for a 1-2-3 third inning, and he got an ovation from the sparse crowd of 13,727 at Safeco for doing so as he sits 37th on MLB’s all-time K list with 2,467, just behind Jack Morris.

It’s a reminder that 2018 Felix Hernandez shouldn’t diminish the former American League Cy Young winner and two-time ERA champion’s career greatness. Even with this tumultuous season (and the previous two years indicating a season like this could be on the horizon), Hernandez still has a 3.33 career ERA.

But he knows this offseason will be the most important he’s had, even if he won’t admit so publicly. Pitchers have converted from lights-out stuff to crafty veteran before (think Zach Greinke or C.C. Sabathia) and for the Mariners’ sake, they need Hernandez to cross that bridge, too.

Certainly not impossible. Hernandez’s stuff is still fine, it’s mostly command that haunted him.

“I look at C.C. all the time and C.C. has talked to me a few times,” Hernandez said. “I just ... I just have to forget about this season. That’s it.”

Asked how this offseason is going to be most different than any of his previous ones, Hernandez shook his head.

“It’s not going to be different.” he said.

“I’m going to be with my family and that’s going to help me a little bit. I’m just going to go out there and work and do my thing and what I have to do, and next year, if I’m here, I’ll do my job.”

There’s simply no leash for another 5.55 ERA season from Hernandez like this one, which is more than a run higher than his previous high of 4.52 in his first full season in the big leagues in 2006. He’s allowed a career-high 27 home runs.

“It’s not about becoming a different pitcher,” Hernandez said. “It’s just being able to make the adjustments when you’re in the middle of a game when you’re in trouble, and go out there and work on my mechanics. I’m going to talk to a lot of people and regroup for next year and we’ll see.”

Hernandez did follow that strike-out-the-side third with a 1-2-3 fourth inning. Then he hit Mark Canha to lead off the fifth and on a ball hit right to him from Josh Phegley, Hernandez threw behind Jean Segura at second base for an error.

Nick Martini followed with an RBI single and Hernandez’s day was done after four-plus innings, the A’s leading 3-2.

“It’s what we did see a lot of all season,” Servais said. “It was the struggle to get through a clean first inning, the home run balls early. He threw the ball pretty good for a couple innings, and obviously the throwing error into center field on a potential double-play ball really flipped the game and we just didn’t recover after that.”

Chasen Bradford entered, allowed an RBI single to Semien, then intentionally walked major-league home run leader Khris Davis with first base open to load the bases for Matt Olson.

Olson obliged with his first career grand slam on a changeup below the zone. Just like that – 8-2, Athletics.

Davis then in the seventh hit his 47th home run of the season with a solo shot off of Casey Lawrence. That’s 10 more home runs than Nelson Cruz has this year, and Cruz entered Wednesday tied for sixth in the majors in home runs for the season.

So four Oakland home runs in the game, and the A’s upped their total to 132 road home runs for the season, which is the fourth-most road homers in a season in MLB history and one away from tying the 1997 Mariners’ 133 road homers, when Ken Griffey Jr. hit 56 homers.

The Mariners erased that early two-run deficit when Edwin Jackson walked Cruz, Kyle Seager and Daniel Vogelbach to load the bases for Ben Gamel, who hit a two-run double to the wall in right-center field.

That was Gamel’s 14th double this season after hitting 27 last year. He’s hit one home run after hitting 11 last season, though his batting average is about the same from a year ago and on-base is up more than 30 points.

Quotable

Servais said Hernandez’s tempo on Wednesday night was most concerning to him.

“The tempo was not good early and you talk about tempo — it’s the time between pitches and getting the ball and getting on the mound and being in attack mode,” Servais said. “And oftentimes when a pitcher isn’t doing that they’re just not comfortable. They are spraying balls around the strike zone and not really attacking and getting in the strike zone. When you see that you want to get them going in a good rhythm again. It’s just good things don’t happen when your tempo is that slow.”

Short hops

The Mariners will give left-hander James Paxton one more start before the season ends, scheduling him for Saturday’s meeting against the Rangers. Their goal is to get him to 160 innings for the season and he’s currently at 154 1/3 innings (a career high) in 27 starts.

They had yet to announce Sunday’s starter in the season finale, which could be either Erasmo Ramirez or Mike Leake, but seems more likely it would be a bullpen day.

Servais also said he’s being cautious with outfielder Denard Span and Dee Gordon the final four games of the season. Span was hit bya pitch off his foot in Wednesday’s game and Gordon fouled a pitch off of his toe, which he fractured in May.

On tap

Left-hander Marco Gonzales (8-5, 3.55 ERA) makes his final start for the Mariners in 2018 opposed by Rangers lefty Martin Perez (2-6, 6.13 ERA at 7:10 p.m. Friday at Safeco Field. The game will broadcast on Root Sports and 710-AM radio.

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 10:23 PM.