Hernandez says he was solid in defeat

SAN DIEGO – For those who worry that Felix Hernandez has lost a little perspective after saying he’d pitched well in a loss, listen to this.

Pitching coach Rafael Chaves agreed with the kid.

“I’ve seen guys throw two-hitters where five hitters lined out,” Chaves said. “And I’ve seen games like Felix’s (Thursday) start against the Dodgers. There were three or four bad hops that changed the innings. He didn’t pitch badly.”

Over the past few years, Mariners pitchers like Gil Meche, Joel Piñeiro and Ryan Franklin have said the same things – that they’d pitched better than their numbers indicated. After a time, that started sounding hollow.

Chaves said Hernandez hasn’t grown defensive. In a game during which he gave up 11 hits in less than six innings and allowed four runs, Chaves said three hits were the result of bad hops and another couple were bloops.

“It’s not like he was saying he threw a shutout,” Chaves said. “Felix knows when he pitches well, and he knows when he doesn’t. I think this was somewhere in between.”

A vote for Ozzie Guillen

Carl Everett played for Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and was occasionally written about by columnist Jay Marriotti – so where did he come down on the controversy involving the two men?

“I don’t think I’d ever side with Marriotti,” Everett said. “He’s one of those guys in the media who calls players stupid. ‘Stupid’ is derogatory, but the media has the right to say that?

“I think it’s a case where we’ve decided one derogatory term is worse than another, so Ozzie’s in trouble and Marriotti isn’t.”

Short hops

Left-hander Eddie Guardado came out of Thursday’s game with pain behind his left shoulder, and was unavailable to pitch Friday. “The trainers say he’s day-to-day, but it doesn’t appear serious,” general manager Bill Bavasi said. … Hold on to your caps, Mariners fans – Adrian Beltre leads the American League in runs scored this month. Beltre entered Friday’s game batting .321 in June, with 21 runs scored, five home runs and 17 RBIs. … With a 20-game hitting streak and an 18-gamer, Ichiro Suzuki owns the two longest hitting streaks in the American League this season. It seems more newsworthy when he doesn’t hit. In his last 59 games, Ichiro has at least one hit in 54 of them. … Having clinched a .500 month in June, Seattle needs one win in its last seven games to post its first winning month since September 2003 – when the Mariners went 13-12. In their first 19 games this month, the Mariners were 13-6.