In the end, you could call Hernandez’s showing ambiguous – neither awful enough to ensure an immediate ouster from the rotation, nor sterling enough to demand his continued presence.
It was a night tinged with sadness. It is always that way when one’s mortality is on display for the world to see.
Felix Hernandez once was the best in the world at throwing a baseball with evil intent, or at least in the conversation. He held that eminence for a good, long time. Now he was desperately trying to show that he still has a place in the Mariners’ rotation, that he can beat back to ravages of time for a little while longer.