King Felix Earns Perfect Coronation

Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez celebrates the final out of his perfect game, the 23rd one thrown in baseball history. (Ted S. Warren)

Felix Hernandez is one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. His pitching prowess has earned him the nickname of King Felix. Despite being an excellent pitcher, the only outstanding accomplishment Hernandez had received was the 2010 AL Cy Young Award. Pitching for the Mariners doesn't help your odds of winning a World Series ring. That meant the biggest accomplishment out their for King Felix to go after was pitching a perfect game. Hernandez has long admitted his desire to pitch perfection, but try after try had come up short.

Hernandez took the mound this afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays. Rays leadoff hitter Sam Fuld got a hold of pitch, but Mariners right fielder Eric Thames tracked it down on the warning track in right center field. In the fifth inning, Rays stud third baseman Evan Longoria hit a line drive, but it was directly at Mariners second baseman Dustin Ackley. Other than those two instances, Hernandez had little difficulty staying perfect through five innings.

King Felix struck out the side in the sixth inning. With two outs in the seventh inning, Rays manager Joe Maddon came out to argue an arbitrary strike one call to try and mess up Hernandez's rhythm. After Maddon's ejection, King Felix got Rays right fielder Matt Joyce to hit an inning-ending groundout on a full count. After a long delay, Hernandez showed no signs of wavering in the eighth inning when he struck out the side for the second time in three innings.

In the ninth inning, King Felix first faced two pinch hitters in outfielder Desmond Jennings and utility man Jeff Keppinger. Jennings struck out on a fastball low in the zone, and Keppinger grounded out to short for the second out. It seemed as though every member of the Safeco Field home crowd rose to their feet, if they weren't already. Their man was on the brink of perfection. Rays third baseman Sean Rodriguez got ahead in the count 2-0. Hernandez took a stroll off the mound to collect himself before returning to pitch. The next two pitches were breaking balls for strikes. King Felix completed perfection with a called third strike on his 113th pitch of the game.

Hernandez pitched the 23rd perfect game in baseball history and amazingly the third this season, joining Philip Humber and Matt Cain. On June 8, six Mariners pitchers combined for a no-hitter of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mariners became the first team to have a combined no-hitter and a perfect game pitched in the same season. Hernandez, the Venezuelan-born hero, became just the second pitcher born outside of the United States to pitch a perfect game (Nicaraguan Dennis Martinez became the first in 1991). He has worked hard to deserve this distinction. King Felix has finally earned one of the crowning jewels that every pitcher so badly desires. I wish to offer him congratulations on this deserved accomplishment.