The Indians denied giving the yellow-clad Mariners fans what they wanted to see at Safeco Field on Tuesday night. In front of a packed house, buzzing at the idea of witnessing Felix Hernandez twirling another perfect game, Cleveland struck quickly.
Three pitches into the evening, Jason Kipnis pulled a pitch from Hernandez into right field, removing any talk of a second consecutive no-hitter for the ace known as King Felix. Unfortunately for the Indians, avoiding history was all the club accomplished in a 5-1 defeat in the Emerald City.
“We weren’t concerned about a perfect game,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “We were concerned about just hanging in there with him and being able to score enough runs. It’s almost impossible to throw back-to-back perfect games or no-hitters.”
In fact, the only pitcher to accomplish the feat in baseball history is Johnny Vander Meer. He pieced together back-to-back no-hitters for the Reds in June 1938.
Cleveland headed into Tuesday knowing that history was on its side in that regard, but Seattle’s fans watched in shock as another Hernandez — Indians sinkerballer Roberto Hernandez — flirted with a no-hitter on a day meant for honoring Felix. The Tribe’s starter eventually buckled and the Indians limped to their seventh straight loss.
“It was unfortunate,” Acta said, “because I thought that Hernandez, our Hernandez,threw the ball very well, too, and matched up pretty good against Felix.”
The loss was the 20th in the past 24 games for the Indians, dating back to July 27. During that rough stretch, Cleveland also suffered an 11-game losing streak, the second-longest slide in club history. This is the first time since 2008 that the Tribe has had two losing streaks of at least seven games in the same season.
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