Efficient Hernandez in complete control

OAKLAND, Calif. — Inning after inning breezed by with the guy behind the plate becoming more impressed with what Felix Hernandez was showing him.

Not simply the devastating two-seam fastball the Mariners' starter was using to saw the bats of Oakland Athletics hitters in half. Those were fine, but what impressed catcher Kenji Johjima even more during a 4-2, complete-game victory by Hernandez Wednesday night was what appeared to be going on inside the 22-year-old's head.

This wasn't the same pitcher who, nine months ago in this very ballpark, needed his pitching coach to show him a post on an internet fan site in a plea to get him to mix his pitches up more. Not the tantrum-throwing, pitch-count abusing youngster whose love for a strikeout often took precedence over the need to log innings.

What Johjima saw wasn't a kid, but a seasoned major-league pitcher. And on this night, at least, the staff ace his team desperately needed.

"I think that he's grown up a lot this past year," Johjima said after the Mariners opened their five-game road swing with a win in front of 21,126 fans at McAfee Coliseum.

Hernandez's legend is growing, in any event. This wasn't exactly his two-hitter in Boston a year ago, the last time Hernandez threw a complete-game victory.

Not when it came, as it did, against an Oakland squad that entered with a paltry .688 on-base-plus slugging percentage. But with a 2-0 record and 1.47 earned-run average so far this season, Hernandez is re-establishing himself as the team's de-facto ace while the pitcher tabbed for that role, Erik Bedard, struggles with a nagging hip injury.

Hernandez got all the support he'd need in the first inning, when the Mariners went to town on A's starter Joe Blanton and a shaky Oakland defense. Raul Ibanez drove Ichiro home with a single to right, and then back-to-back doubles by Adrian Beltre and Jose Vidro — the second of those a line drive that diving center fielder Ryan Sweeney let get past him — brought home two more.

Oakland got an unearned run back in the third on a throwing error by shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. But Beltre restored the three-run lead in the fourth with a double that scored Ibanez from first, thanks largely to a poor relay throw by left fielder Jack Cust.

The work by Hernandez — and to a lesser extent, fellow starter Carlos Silva — has eased the sting of injuries to Bedard and closer J.J. Putz on a team once again back at .500 at 8-8. Hernandez would be 3-0 and already topping early Cy Young Award contender lists if not for a ninth-inning meltdown in Baltimore by situational lefty reliever Eric O'Flaherty.

It was after eight innings of that game, Hernandez leading 2-0, that he told manager John McLaren his arm was tired. That came during a week in which Hernandez, replacing an injured Bedard at the last minute, worked without his usual rest.

No such issues this time.

"In the eighth inning, he asked me, 'How do you feel?' " Hernandez said of McLaren, who'd seen his starter throw 108 pitches through eight frames. "I said, 'Good, I can come back. You don't take me out.' "

And McLaren didn't.

"He's a fierce competitor," McLaren said. "I can tell you, he really wants it. That's what you like to see. You want to see guys who like to close out games, and he's got that in him."

Hernandez had been victimized by bloopers in the eighth, when the A's scored their only earned run.

But he got the side out 1-2-3 in the ninth, notching his eighth strikeout of the game to start it. He then rallied from a 3-0 count to get Sweeney to ground out to end it, with Arthur Rhodes warming up in the Mariners' bullpen.

Johjima said he'd thought of having Hernandez walk Sweeney, a move that likely would have brought Rhodes in the game.

"But he came up with good pitches on the corner of the plate," Johjima said. "And that's what helped us get through."

Hernandez shook off some blooped hits in the first inning, escaping with a double-play grounder by Mike Sweeney. In that problematic eighth, things could have gone worse had Hernandez not snared a Mark Ellis comebacker to begin a 1-6-3 double play.

Johjima didn't always see that from Hernandez last year when bloop hits, umpires' calls and other things failed to go the pitcher's way.

"He still gets very emotional," Johjima said. "That's his pitching style, and I believe that's good. It's when you get too emotional that you start to lose yourself. You can't control yourself at times."

Not this time. It wasn't the Hernandez who beat Boston a year ago, but it didn't have to be. For now, the 2008 version of is all his team needs.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners