The 90% Jinx?

The metaphorical ink was barely dry on my screen when . . .



Felix Leaves Game with Injury

By Geoff Baker

Seattle Times staff reporter

Mariners star pitcher Felix Hernandez left the game tonight in the first inning with an injury later described as “tightness in his right elbow.”

Hernandez, who had not allowed a run in his first two starts this season, was facing just his fifth batter.

Trainers and coaches rushed out to attend to Hernandez after he threw a ball to Twins first baseman Justin Morneau on a 2-1 pitch. Moments later, he headed to the clubhouse. The Mariners said Hernandez will be re-evaluated Thursday. The Mariners described the lifting of Hernandez as “precautionary’’ but it comes as a potentially staggering blow to a squad that leans heavily on his arm.

The 21-year-old entered the game against the Minnesota Twins at Safeco Field having tossed 17 consecutive scoreless innings in a 2-0 start to the season. His team took a 5-4 record into the game, good for a share of first place in the American League West with the Oakland Athletics.

But Hernandez wasn’t himself from the start tonight.

The crowd of 20,871, many still filing into their seats, looked on in dismay as Hernandez yielded a pair of singles, then walked Joe Mauer to load the bases with nobody out. A wild pitch scored the game’s first run and Michael Cuddyer then brought a second marker in with a groundout.

Hernandez went 3-1 in the count to Morneau, last year’s American League MVP before the Seattle bench called for time and trainers and coaches headed to the field. The crowd groaned and murmured in dismay as Hernandez walked off the field and was replaced by left-hander Jake Woods.

Minnesota scored a third run that inning — charged to Hernandez — when Woods walked Morneau, then issued a run-scoring single to Mike Redmond. The Twins had built a 5-0 lead by the fifth inning, with the Mariners doing little to muster any offense against Minnesota starter Carlos Silva.

As it turns out, the injury was a mild strain in his elbow that will cause him to miss only 1-3 weeks.
And that noise you hear is the 2.5 million residents of the Seattle metropolitan area exhaling at once. . . .