King Felix, homers too much as Twins fall to Mariners

SEATTLE – Phil Hughes was excellent Friday … but he needed to be awesome, outstanding and probably out of this world.

The righthander matched Mariners ace Felix Hernandez with a complete game, no walks and nine strikeouts. What foiled Hughes this night were two pitches that landed in the seats and were the difference in a 2-0 Twins loss to Seattle.

The two dueled. The innings flew by. The game was played in a tidy 2 hours, 3 minutes. the shortest game by the Twins since Oct. 3, 2010.

"There wasn't too many times where there was a long break [between innings]," Hughes said. "When he's on like that, you just hope you can squeeze a couple across."

Hughes already has been on the losing end of matchups with Detroit's David Price and Chicago's Chris Sale. He was good enough Friday to beat anyone — except Hernandez.

A whopping 72 of Hughes' 96 pitches were strikes. He threw first-pitch strikes to 26 of the 30 batters he faced. Seattle picked up on his strike-throwing. They swung at his first pitch nine times over the first six innings, fouling three off and putting six in play. But that's not the contact that doomed Hughes.

A 1-2 fastball to Nelson Cruz in the second inning landed in the second deck at Safeco Field for the first run. Hughes went right back to pounding the strike zone, throwing five pitches in the third inning and eight in the fourth. Then he fell behind 2-0 to Logan Morrison to start the fifth, and the first baseman hit the next pitch over the right-center wall to give Seattle a 2-0 lead.

"Two pitches I'd like to have back," Hughes said. "That's been the story of my year so far."

The Twins offense? Did not exist against King Felix.

"King's Court," a spot in the left-field corner reserved for willing fans, is at least two sections large on the nights Hernandez pitches at Safeco. Friday, it was a whopping four sections strong, as the demand for fans willing to wear gold T-shirts and wave "K" cards was huge. Whenever Hernandez got two strikes on a hitter, the section would stand and chant for the strikeout.

It was the was the soundtrack of the early innings. Hernandez struck out five of the first nine batters he faced. Only one ball was hit out of the infield the first three innings.

It was 14 up, 14 down for King Felix — with seven strikeouts — before Trevor Plouffe lined a single to right for the first Twins hit.

"We were trying different things," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "We tried to be aggressive. We tried to be patient. Nothing was very effective. He was throwing hard enough, cutting the ball enough, the changeup was outstanding."

Said Hernandez: "When I started the game, I was in the strike zone, and I felt really good. The fastball was really good and making everything better. I knew I had it. I had the stuff to throw a perfect game, but it didn't happen."

Kurt Suzuki started the sixth inning with an infield hit and went to second on a throwing error by Seattle shortstop Brad Miller. Jordan Schafer followed with an infield hit to break an 0-for-21 skid. The top of the Twins order was up with runners at the corners, but Danny Santana flied out to short center, Torii Hunter struck out and Joe Mauer grounded to first.

The Twins again had runners on first and third with two out in the seventh, but Suzuki flied out to end that inning. That was it for Twins scoring threats.

"Phil threw outstanding," Molitor said. "Too bad we couldn't get those runs across."