Not in the King's Court: Hernandez outduels Hughes

SEATTLE --- Twins righthander Phil Hughes was excellent on Friday - but he needed to be awesome, outstanding and probably out of this world.

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

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 2010, when Toronto's Mark Rzepczynski beat Nick Blackburn.

``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 against Detroit's David Price and Chicago's Chris Sale. He was good enough on 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 Hughes' first pitch nine times over the first six innings of the game, 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 met Cruz's bat and landed in the second deck at Safeco Field for the first run of the game. Hughes went right back to pounding the strike zone. He had a five-pitch third inning and an eight-pitch 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.

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. On 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 Twins hitter, the section would stand and chant for the strikeout.

It was the was the soundtrack of the early innings.

Danny Santana had no chance, striking out on a change up in the dirt. Torii Hunter couldn't check his swing in time. And Joe Mauer looked at strike three in the first inning. Hernandez struck out five of the first nine batters he faced. Only one ball was hit out of the infield the first three innings - Oswaldo Arcia's fly out to right to lead off the third.

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

Twins outfielder Jordan Schafer, who got an infield single in the sixth to snap a 0-for-21 slump, was more blunt.

``Thank God every guy you face isn't like that," he said.

Hernandez struck out the final four batters in his previous outing, plus the first four on Friday. He's the first Seattle starter since Mark Langston in 1986 to strike out eight batters in a row.

``When I started the game, I was in the strike zone, and I felt really good," Hernandez said. ``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 reached on an infield hit in the sixth and went to second on a throwing error by Seattle shortstop Brad Miller. Then Schafer got the infield hit. The top of the Twins order was up, but Santana flied out to short center, Hunter struck out and Mauer grounded to first to end the inning.

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

NOTES:

Phil Hughes had not given up a home run in 29.1 career innings at Safeco Field before today.