On Tuesday night Felix Hernandez stole the show from the attractions of Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke “Dice K” Matsuzaka. Although the media hype was surrounding Ichiro facing Matsuzaka, Hernandez was quietly shutting down the Boston Red Sox offense. He went all nine innings, and gave up just one hit while striking out six.  Matsuzaka wasn’t nearly as impressive, throwing seven innings, giving up eight hits and three earned runs while striking out four and giving up one walk.

The final score was Seattle 3, Boston 0. Through seven innings, King Felix still had a no hitter, which was broken up by a J.D Drew single in the eighth inning. Kenji Johjima, whose had the most experience against Matsuzaka (Over 100 at-bats and five homeruns in Japan) got two hits against Dice K.

After an offseason of hard work and taking off 30 pounds one would figure that this could be Hernandez’s breakthrough year. Allowing just one run to a potent Red Sox offense containing David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Drew. King Felix’s fastball tonight regularly hit the 90’s and after taking a scalding line drive hit by Manny off his leg in the second inning, Hernandez still recovered to throw one hit ball.  Throwing a complete game showed the longevity he did not display last season when he was in worse shape. The bottom line is that if King Felix can keep up this level of performance all year, Seattle’s chances for a playoff run should look more realistic.