SEATTLE — Felix Hernandez turned in quite a performance for six innings Monday night, but all people were talking about afterward was what happened in the seventh.
His six innings of shutout baseball were overshadowed by how the Seattle Mariners right-hander left the game — by ejection, for the first time in his nine-year career.
Hernandez actually been pulled from the game before plate umpire Mark Ripperger officially gave him the heave-ho.
With Seattle ahead 9-0, the Tampa Bay Rays’ seventh inning began with three consecutive singles to load the bases. After two strikeouts, Hernandez allowed a bases-clearing double to No. 9 hitter Ryan Hanigan.
Manager Lloyd McClendon came out to remove Hernandez from the game, and the 28-year-old right-hander walked straight into the home dugout — but didn’t go quietly. He turned and unleashed a string of expletives toward Ripperger, who was standing 70 or 80 feet away behind the third base line, and Hernandez promptly got ejected.
After reliever Tom Wilhelmsen gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced, Hernandez was charged with four earned runs allowed over 6 2/3 innings. It marked the fifth game in a row that Hernandez gave up three runs or more, but he snapped his streak of five consecutive games without a win by earning career victory No. 114.
Afterward, Hernandez said that he felt as if he were in control well into the seventh inning, even after giving up the three consecutive singles. He didn’t express any remorse about how his night ended, preferring instead to make a joke about the incident.
“I’m a pro baseball player now,” he said after the Mariners’ 12-5 win. “First ejection.”
Hernandez said his frustration with Ripperger was building all night, and the tipping point came on a 2-1 pitch to Hanigan that Hernandez thought should have been a called strike. On the next pitch, Hanigan hit a 3-1 fastball into the right-center-field gap.
“He’s the umpire,” Hernandez said with a shrug. “He can call balls; he can call strikes.”
McClendon also was able to joke about the ejection.
“I’m sure he got his money’s worth,” the manager said after the game. “I didn’t understand everything (Hernandez) said, but …”