Writing about Felix Hernandez has always been difficult for me.

He has meant so very many different things to so very many different people, many of whom write far more eloquently and impactfully than myself. Here I am, though, writing about Felix Hernandez, just a few days removed from the anniversary of his perfect game. 

I’m not here to cover the perfect game, however. We know the pose, we know the ending, and, heck–with enough brain power and perseverance–we could probably recite the entire starting lineup. What I am here to cover is his second-most memorable, far less-mentioned outing: a duel with the mighty Red Sox of Boston on April 11, 2007. 

The Prelude

In early 2007, Félix Hernández was not quite Félix Hernández. The stuff was magnificent and the ceiling was dreamy, but he wasn’t a household name. Ken Rosenthal had not yet demanded he be handed over to the Yankees.

The Seattle Mariners , meanwhile, were coming off their third consecutive losing season, a fully collapsed juggernaut that never really jugger’d nor naut’d. To make matters worse, the 2007 season got off to an odd start. 

For three days, things were fine! Félix was Félix and Jarrod Washburn was Jarrod Washburn in a series win over Oakland (NOTE: Miguel Batista was also very much Miguel Batista in the series, as well, but in the interest of happy banter we shall leave it at that). From there, the team traveled to Cleveland, where all the snow in all the midwest proceeded to pour down upon them and wipe out the entirety of a four-game series. In game one, the teams were one single strike away from meeting the official five-inning mark when the snow grew so relentless that it became a bit of a health hazard. From there, it was a logistical nightmare. Single games became doubleheaders. Doubleheaders became blizzards. Blizzards became five days off in April. From there, the team headed to Boston as cold as ice. 

In game one, the Mariners very much looked the part of a team that just had several days off from a timing-based game. Jeff Weaver was miserable [Ed’s Note: WEIRD!], surrendering seven runs in two innings. The Mariners lost, 14-3. It was, in a way, the type of game that reminded you of the ocean that seemingly existed between the two teams. These were very much the Red Sox you think of when you think about The Red Sox: Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Jason Varitek, Dustin Pedroia, Coco Crisp, J.D. Drew, Josh Beckett. These were thee Red Sox, the highest of baseball royalty, a team that would go on to sweep the Colorado Rockies in the World Series a few months later. 

They couldn’t be tamed. 

Along Comes an Ace

It is now April 11, 2007, and ESPN camera crews are piling into Fenway Park. While the network loves them some Red Sox baseball, they are really there to see the unveiling of a phenom. People are calling this man the future of baseball, someone who will make a laughing stock of lineups for years and years. All day long, all anyone will talk about is baseball’s newest ace: Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Felix was never supposed to be the story. It was some parts Matsuzaka and some parts Matsuzka vs. Ichiro. Along came an ace.

The Lineups

Boston trots out the very same lineup that scored 14 runs the night before. It is filled to the brim with names that will be remembered for eternity. Their number nine hitter is Dustin Pedroia, who will go on to hit .317/.380/.442 in his rookie campaign. One year later, he will be baseball’s Most Valuable Player.

The Mariners’ number three hitter is Jose Vidro. (Source: Baseball Reference) 

The Game Begins

The duel began as expected, with both pitchers tossing scoreless first innings. Jose Vidro managed a weak grounder through the left side for a single, but no other player for either side would reach base.

Mariners 0 – Red Sox 0

In the second, the Mariners would actually manage to get to Matsuzaka. A Jose Guillen single, Kenji Johjima double, and Yuniesky Betancourt sacrifice fly netted them a 1-0 lead.

Mariners 1 – Red Sox 0

Felix responded to the lead with a nine-pitch second inning, including this impressive, very intentional kick-pass to Adrian Beltre: 

In the bottom of the third, he would strike out Varitek and Crisp before walking Pedroia. A Julio Lugo groundout ended the inning. The scoreless inning matched Matsuzaka’s. 

Mariners 1 – Red Sox 0

In the fourth, a second walk–this one to Youkilis–was immediately followed by a double play and a groundout. Again, the scoreless frame matched Matsuzaka’s. 

Mariners 1 – Red Sox 0

It is officially a duel.

The Narrative Turns

It’s the fifth inning when the narrative begins to take a turn. Up to this point, Matsuzaka had very much been running a gem of his own. His only real mistake had been the double to Johjima and, again, this was a time when the Red Sox offense felt unstoppable. They’d get to Felix, it was simply a matter of ‘when’. All Matsuzaka had to do was keep pitching. 

Only, we so often forget that the 2007 Mariners were–at their core–a perfectly fine baseball team. They weren’t the Red Sox, but they managed. Sure, they had Jose Vidro in a core spot of their lineup, but they managed. 

Jose Lopez singled. Adrian Beltre hit a deep double to left-center, scoring Lopez. Vidro–AGAIN–managed to wrangle up a base hit off of Matsuzaka to score Beltre.

Mariners 3 – Red Sox 0

Suddenly, Felix was a man alone. 

The Crescendo 

It’s here that Felix ascends into a higher plane of existence, one in which he is a titan a step above all those Red Sox gods. Coming off two consecutive innings in which he’d issued walks, one would understand if cracks began to show. This was Fenway! This was national television! This was a 21-year-old! This was the best lineup in baseball! We all would have understood if Felix surrendered a hit here and a hit there and turned the game over to the bullpen in the 7th with a 3-2 lead. Heck, we might have taken that exact outcome if offered in the moment. 

Only, Felix had different plans. 

First he got J.D. Drew to ground a ball to second. Then he did the same to Mike Lowell. Then he fielded a grounder from Varitek. An inning later, he continued the grounder-fest, with a second strikeout of Coco Crisp mixed in. One inning later–facing the meat of the Sox–Felix recorded a Youkilis lineout, Ortiz flyout, and Ramirez strikeout.

In total, he sat nine consecutive batters down on a breezy 34 pitches. 

At this point, it’s pandemonium. We are entering the eighth inning and the Red Sox do not have a single base hit yet. Everyone is freaking out. Mariners fans are freaking out. Red Sox fans are silently freaking out. People turning on ESPN to watch the ticker for news updates are freaking out. 

Felix is six outs away from baseball immortality when J.D. Drew–the Red Sox newest, $70 million dollar man–steps up to the plate.

J.D. $#@&$@#& Drew

“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs,

Jose Lopez’s arms were as tall as the sky. 

Finishing the Fight

I remember the hit well. For a moment, it was deflating–as if everything that had happened prior no longer mattered. The sneaky liner, however, would be the first and only Red Sox base hit of the night. In hindsight, we probably should have known this would be the case, because Felix immediately flashed a look of “I’m about to end this man’s whole career”:

One flyout and four groundouts later, Felix would be left with only Youkilis–the Greek God of Walks–standing in the way of him and every Major League Baseball headline for the next 24 hours. After placing himself in a favorable 1-2 count, Felix cocked back, fired a breaking ball, and let out a scream so fierce, an entire fanbase was lifted:

Felix’s final line: 9.0 IP, H, 2 BB, 0 R, 6 SO, 9 swinging strikes, 111 pitches

The Immediate Aftermath

Everyone–Mariner fan or not–knew they had just witnessed something. You don’t make the Red Sox look this bad on accident, and there’s also a very real feeling that comes from observing genuine magic. 

From the New York Times: 

“At that moment Wednesday night, hardly anyone cared where Seattle’s Félix Hernández was. Hernández was starting for the Mariners, but he was overshadowed by the tussle between Matsuzaka and Suzuki…Hernández, not Matsuzaka, was the young, dominant pitcher. Hernández, not Matsuzaka, made a solid lineup look feeble. Hernández did what the dreamiest of Red Sox fans had hoped Matsuzaka could do by taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning.”

From The Boston Globe: 

“Daisuke Matsuzaka turned out to be the second-best international pitching sensation on display at Fenway last evening.”

From Reuters:

“The pre-game hype had centered around Matsuzaka’s first appearance before the Fenway Park faithful and his matchup with Seattle leadoff man Ichiro Suzuki. But it was the 21-year-old Venezuelan Hernandez, dubbed “King Felix” by his fans, who stole the show, carrying a no-hitter into the eighth before J.D. Drew led off with a clean single to center on a first-pitch fastball.”

From ESPN:

“Boston fans didn’t count on Seattle starter Felix Hernandez throwing a wrench into the proceedings and dwarfing the main event. Talk about bad timing; Matsuzaka proved to be good and mortal on a night when a quality start was destined to make him an afterthought.”

From David Ortiz:

“That kid can have a career like Roger Clemens, Nolan Ryan or Pedro Martinez,” Boston designated hitter David Ortiz said. “If he behaves and takes care of himself, he can be somebody really big in this game. He’s very powerful as a pitcher. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that in a long time.”

That’s the thing about magic, baby: you know it when you see it. Sure, we wouldn’t see this dominant of a Felix start again until 2010–an eleven-strikeout shutout of the Yankees in Yankee Stadium–and he wouldn’t even truly ascend into the top tier of pitchers until 2009. But that night, we all just knew it was an inevitability. 

There are times where I wonder if I prefer this start to the perfect game. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s hard for me to explain the rush that came from knowing the Mariners had a genuine, 21-year-old superstar on their roster. It is very much one of my favorite games in Mariner history. May it, and the King, live on forever.