FanHouse RafaelChaves

In case you missed it on Saturday afternoon, King Felix ruined the return of Rich Harden for the Athletics by making Harden's presence an afterthought. Felix was treating the Athletics the same way a bear plays with a fish before eating it.

Hernandez lasted eight innings, giving up only two hits and no runs in Seattle's 4-0 victory.

The key is where Hernandez got his strategy. Unlike Sports Illustrated, when Felix Hernandez takes something from a blog, he gives them credit.

"Chaves gave me a report,'' Hernandez said. "On the internet, they say when I throw a lot of fastballs in the first inning, they score a lot of runs. I tried to mix all my pitches in the first inning.''

Chaves is Mariners pitching coach Rafael Chavez, who was given a letter by an unknown fan whom he'd never met before. The letter that fan gave him was a printout from this post, "Open Letter to Rafael Chaves", by the guys at USS Mariner.

"It was nothing but reinforcement of the talks we've had in the past,'' Chaves said. "I just wanted to make Felix aware that 'It's not a top secret around baseball that you have a tendency to get into patterns. We all get scouted and...unless you make your own adjustments it's going to be easy to predict what you're going to be doing out there to begin with.''

The Mariners jumped all over the Royals yesterday in a 10-2 rout, but the game had a few scary moments for the Mariners and their fans alike.

After cruising throughout most of the game, Felix Hernandez seemed to be struggling in the sixth inning. After Alex Gordon hit an RBI double for the Royals, M's pitching coach Rafael Chaves went to the mound to see what was going on.

Then Chaves motioned to the dugout for Mike Hargrove.

"It looked like he was overthrowing and there was no reason to," Hargrove said. "I sent him out there to settle him down and get him back in rhythm and then he motioned me out there and my heart stopped along with everybody else's."

Hernandez was then taken out of the game with tightness in his lower back, even though he wanted to be left in and argued with his manager about it.

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Hargrove said. "He wasn't real happy. It [the conversation] started out in Spanish and I ended it in English. I don't mind a guy arguing like that, but with any pitcher, you're really running the risk of them compensating in some other way and pulling a muscle, putting a strain on their forearm. There's no reason for him to stay in that game. The game was already out of hand."

Hernandez believes his back tightened up as a result of having to sit on the bench for so long between innings. The good news is that there doesn't seem to be a reason to believe he'll miss his next start. The same cannot be said for his teammate Horacio Ramirez.

Ramirez was placed on the 15-day disabled list with tendinitis in his left throwing shoulder. The Mariners called up Jon Huber from Tacoma to take his place.

Previously at The Fanhouse:
Felix Hernandez Leaves With Elbow Tightness
King Felix Rules The Disabled List