Hernandez keeps his hat, loses some luster

SURPRISE, Ariz. — The only thing that knocked Felix Hernandez's cap off his head yesterday was a whistling single hit up the middle by Kansas City's David DeJesus, the first batter he faced.

It was indicative of how Hernandez — rated by many the top minor-league pitching prospect in baseball — would do in his second spring-training outing for the Mariners.

In less than two innings, he gave up four runs, four hits and three walks.

"This may sound strange, but I was hoping to see one of these," Bryan Price, the Mariners' pitching coach, said after a 6-0 loss to the Royals.

"Now I can focus on how he handles it. They say in the minor leagues he only had two starts where he struggled. Everyone struggles."

Last week Hernandez, 18, got through one inning without allowing a run or a hit.

"You start out with the guy being talked about as the greatest of all-time for the Mariners," Price said. "I think he was trying to live up to the hype and be as good as everyone expects him to be.

"It would have been fine if he had given up a couple of hits, but he wanted a line score that lived up to the billing. I am sure he will learn from this.

"He was simply trying too hard and overthrowing."

After getting a haircut between starts, his hat, which blew off a dozen times or more in his first game, stayed on except for the hit by DeJesus.

The only thing Hernandez had in his defense yesterday was an error by first baseman Richie Sexson that made two of the four runs unearned. Sexson made two errors and struck out twice.

Hernandez threw 28 pitches, only eight of them for strikes.

"The defense didn't play well behind him, and it added a lot of pitches to him in the first inning," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said of Hernandez. "He started pressing and reverted to an 18-year-old kid, just throwing the ball. If he learns from it, then it was worth going through."

Hargrove wasn't happy with the Mariners' performance, their fifth loss in six games.

"Spring-training games can be awfully, awfully ugly," he said. "Today wasn't a pretty day for the Mariners. It's not a lack of effort. This is what I call a drag day. This is ours for the spring. I don't care to see that again."

One good note came in the two-inning pitching performance from Clint Nageotte, who allowed a hit and a run. His breaking ball was effective.

Pineiro, Boone out

Boone said he woke up with the problem Tuesday but opted to try to play in Seattle's game against the Anaheim Angels at Tempe, Ariz. He had to come out in the fifth inning when his back seemed worse.

"It's only a typical spring backache, from the extra work and all," Boone said. "Some years are worse than others, and I thought this would be OK until we stood through a couple of long innings. Then I had to dive for a ball with the infield in, and I really felt it and said, 'Oh-oh.' I decided not to risk it getting any worse, and came out."

Boone said he expected to feel good enough to play in several days. "The important thing is to be ready, and healthy, for the start of the season," he said.

Pineiro acknowledged he might have overthrown in his start last Friday in Maryvale.

"I said that day I felt great, but how I felt the next morning would be important, too," he said. "Well, when I woke up I could feel something really wrong in the back of the shoulder."

When he couldn't raise his arm to brush his teeth, he really knew he had a problem.

"But it feels better just from the rest, and my elbow feels good, too," he said. "I've played catch and it's been fine. In fact, I felt good enough to just get the next start pushed back a couple of days."

But when he suggested that to Price, he was told that because of the intricate schedule for pitching in spring games, if he came back after just a few days he would mess up the timing for too many others.

"So I'll miss a full five days of the rotation," Pineiro said. "That means I'll make my next start on my next scheduled day, Monday."

Seattle has another split-squad situation Monday, against the San Diego Padres in Peoria and Royals in Surprise.

Notes

• When the Chicago White Sox arrived to play the Padres here yesterday, Freddy Garcia stopped by the Mariners' clubhouse to visit.

• Mark Prior will start for the Chicago Cubs against Seattle today.

Times staff reporter Bob Finnigan contributed to this report.