In addition to proving that athletes nicknamed “King” can perform really well in New York — hear that, LeBron? — Felix Hernandez’s impressive complete game shutout last night made Cliff Lee’s nine-inning victory from the night before look like, well, any number of recent A.J. Burnett outings. Hernandez allowed just two hits, and one of them — the pop-up that Chone Figgins lost in the lights — wasn’t even his fault. Joe Girardi called his stuff “electric.” We concur.
Javier Vazquez pitched okay enough — striking out Ryan Langerhans with the bases loaded in the fifth certainly seemed important at the time — though even the most optimistic, walk-off-pie-craving fan couldn’t have had much hope after Russell Branyan’s two-run homer off Damaso Marte in the seventh. Of course, all of this is moot: Seattle’s offense could have packed up their bats after Milton Bradley’s solo homer in the second the way Hernandez pitched. His only real mistake in the 7–0 win was Mark Teixeira’s fourth-inning double, which kept the first baseman’s eleven-game hitting streak — over which he was just twelve hits — alive.
Losing two in a row to Seattle sounds a lot worse than losing two in a row to Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, so let’s just agree to call it that instead, okay?