Felix Hernandez pleased with Mariners

“It’s a lot different,” Hernandez said after the game. “It’s way different than last year.
“We’ve played better baseball and we’ve been doing the little things. It’s unbelievable the way we’ve been playing the last two weeks.”
Hernandez might be seeing something others aren’t considering the Mariners lost seven of eight games until Wednesday of last week when they started a current five-game winning streak. What everyone could be seeing, however, is how the departure of a guy like Milton Bradley and a new managerial regime is affecting the clubhouse.
The Mariners are 1 ½ games out of first place entering the week and not surprisingly the pitching has been the reason for the recent success. Over Seattle’s last nine games, starting pitchers have thrown at least seven innings and allowed no more than two runs. The last time a run like that happened was in 1999 when the Atlanta Braves pulled it off and Seattle is the first American League team to do it since the 1983 Texas Rangers.
Over the last five games, the offense has averaged 3.8 runs per game, not exactly Murderer’s Row, but for the Mariners, it’s an outburst. And with the pitching staff Seattle boasts, it’s plenty enough to win.
“This is what was expected,” Mariners catcher Miguel Olivo said. “We’ve got an amazing starting rotation. We’ve just been looking for runs to support them, and now we’re getting them.”
If the Mariners can continue to find adequate offense for their rotation, which is second in the majors with a 3.05 ERA from their rotation, they have the arms to carry them into meaningful games in September. With Hernandez, rookie sensation Michael Pineda and Erik Bedard leading the way, the Mariners clearly have the starting pitching to contend right now and keep King Felix happy.