The Yankees and their fans can’t have it all. The King and His Court will remain in Seattle.
Felix Hernandez showed the Yankees again how good he really is as he beat Phil Hughes, 9-2 at the Stadium.
The win snapped the Mariners 17-game losing streak. Hernandez made the most of what little support he got early, getting a big day from young second baseman Dustin Ackley to build a 2-1 lead going into the seventh. Ackley is one of the players GM Jack Zduriencik pointed to as why he will not trade Hernandez.
The Mariners then broke it open with five runs in that seventh inning, getting three runs home on Mike Carp’s triple.
“I don’t have any intentions to trade Felix; I want to make that perfectly clear,’’ Zduriencik said before the game. “The reason behind it is pretty simple, he’s a 1-1.’’
That means he’s an ace of aces.
Hernandez went seven innings, allowing one run on five hits. He struck out five. Hughes was OK, nothing special, lasting six innings, surrendering nine hits and two runs. He was throwing 93 mph early but quickly dipped to 91. He is not close to being Phil Hughes the All-Star from the first half of 2010.
Just because the Mariners lost 17 in a row, doesn’t mean he is going to have a sale on players, Zduriencik said.
“We’re building this thing right now, we have a lot of nice things going on, when you consider what Felix is capable of and what he has done. You look at Michael Pineda,’’ Zduriencik said.
That is a serious 1-2 punch.
The Mariners believe they are not that far away and point to Ackley, who had three hits. They think he is going to be a star. Ackley tripled in the first run of the day for Seattle. Zduriencik chose first baseman Justin Smoak over the Yankees prospects in the Cliff Lee deal last July.
He simply is not going to trade King Felix.
“To give away your best asset,’’ Zduriencik said, “the one thing that the most desirable in the game, that, and a 4-hole hitter, those two things, when you’ve got one, everybody wants that. (Hernandez) wants to be here. He’s made that clear to us. We signed him to a really nice contract. Hey, we’re happy he’s here.’’
Zduriencik also made the point that teams in contention are not going to break up their clubs and offer you what it would take to land a King.
“This guy is pretty special; it’s a great commodity to have,’’ Zduriencik said.
As for all the losing, Zduriencik is trying to make the best of it.
“This is a process, it’s unfortunate where we are right now as an organization, but in the end we are going to be better for it,’’ he explained. “You just can’t quit. This is a huge struggle but you find out a lot about people.’’
Zduriencik notes that the Mariners first pick this year in the draft, the second overall pick, Danny Hultzen, a pitcher out of Virginia, is not that far away as well. Better days are ahead for the Mariners. Zduriencik brought in a lot of the good young players to Milwaukee, so he knows this takes a while.
The Yankees will have to make do for now with the rotation they have, Hughes is going to have to find a way to get it together. The King will remain with his Court in Seattle.
“He’s a 1-1, a Cy Young Award winner and a great person.’’
He will remain a Mariner. The Yankees are going to have to look elsewhere for pitching.


