Mariners Noon Number: The King is giving up a lot of contact

Felix Hernandez walked four and allowed two home runs and the Seattle Mariners lost to the Kansas City Royals 7-3 on Tuesday.

Hernandez gave up a total of six runs – five earned – and six hits over six innings.

Thus far this season, Hernandez has been very stingy with the free passes. Up until Tuesday, he’d allowed just 1.6 walks per nine innings, a mark that would qualify as the best in his career if he keeps it up the rest of the season.

It’s a far departure from 2016, when he walked a whopping 3.8 per nine. In fact, in each of the past three seasons his walk rate had increased, so his control had to be a point of emphasis for him coming into the season, and for the most part he’s had success – at least in that regard.

The tradeoff for living in the strike zone, however, is a vast jump in contact rate and hits allowed. Last season, Hernandez gave up 8.1 hits per nine, right at his 12-year MLB average. This season, that number jumps to an unsustainable 12.1 per nine innings. As well, his home run per nine has almost doubled from last season, from 1.1 to 2.1.

Hernandez is still capable of success when he controls the corners early in the count and can then get batters to chase something offspeed.

Unfortunately, that is occurring less and less this season.