Nothing like a like a line like this to calm the fretting of Mariners fans:

8 IP, 0 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 9 SO

Those numbers come from Felix Hernandez in his first dominant performance since the beginning of the season. Granted, at home against the Pirates who are tied for the 3rd worst offense in baseball, but I'll take it nonetheless.

Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come.

I was playing poker this weekend at The Venetian (I know, big shock). At my table was a guy from Florida with his wife or girlfriend (she was a pretty good player). Anyway, as the hours began to get early, he announced their penultimate hands. It's the first time I had ever heard that word used at a poker table, and he used it correctly (being UTG+1). Paul Phillips would have been proud.

The punchline of this story is that although he used the word correctly (as evidenced by his intent while being UTG+1), he never should have used it in the first place, as he ended up staying a few more laps, during which time (if memory serves) I bluffed him off a nice little pot with Tc5c.

The Felix Hernandez situation is just horrible. He's got another start scheduled for Thursday (one day before I head up Seattle to watch Junior play in Seattle for the first time in 8 years).

Since his outstanding first two games, he's had 8 starts, going 1-4 with a 6.63 ERA, averaging just under 5 innings per start. His WHIP is 2.03 which is really terrible.

He's still striking batters out (more than 1 per inning pitches), but he's letting too many runners reach base. You cannot be a successful major league pitcher with a WHIP over 2, no matter how many batters you strike out.

I hope these statistics simply reflect a young pitcher who is pitching tentatively, scared about the possibility of reinjuring his arm. I suspect, however, that he's still injured, and that we will never see the King Felix that we once expected, no matter what the organization says.

The only thing that gives me hope is that his slump could just reflect youthful arrogance -- he may not yet understand the importance of pitch location. (It also could reflect poor pitch calling by Johjima.) I'm not a big fan of Mike Hargrove, but his comments after Felix's last start support this idea:

"His command is just not where it was before he went on the disabled list," Hargrove said. "His stuff's still good, it's just that he needs to locate it better."

In other words, throwing three-quarters of his pitches inside the strike zone isn't a very good idea. Not when Hernandez keeps leaving them in the middle of the plate, missing his targets both on the inside and outside corners as well as down low.

"I don't care how hard you throw or how good your stuff is," Hargrove said. "If you don't locate it consistently, major-league hitters are going to hit you, and that's what we've seen happening with Felix."

I'm hoping that he's right. But I don't he is.

Thing is, not all of Hernandez's "stuff" has been good. His two-seam fastball sure isn't the same as it was back when he reeled off those season-opening wins.

"My two-seamer was working better than now," Hernandez said. "Now, I haven't got nothing.

"I still don't have it in the bullpen, either," he added. That's tough on a pitcher trying to establish his fastball early in games. Four of the Astros' first five batters notched hits off Hernandez.

The Mariners haven't had very good luck with young pitchers. It seems that history continues to haunt them.

Cool things you find on political blogs:

I've come to the conclusion that the mainstream media is Al Qaeda's YouTube. Terrorism sells (or at least the MSM thinks it does), so anytime Al Qaeda wants to reach out and scare someone, all they need to do is a "upload" a video to the lapdogs in the American press corps.

Last night, ABC became the latest network to subject Americans to terrorist propaganda when Charlie Gibson warned us of this "sobering development" in Afghanistan:

ABC News has obtained pictures from Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan of a Taliban graduation -- young foot soldiers being sent into battle against the U.S. and other western nations.

Gibson said the video showed "pictures of terrorist recruits being sent off on suicide missions around the world."

The video turned out to be a terrorist propaganda film.

The strange part? ABC knew it was terrorist propaganda all along -- yet still hyped the video, offering virtually no evidence supporting its central claims.

After Brian Ross finished reading his "report" on the video, Gibson asked an important question:

Is it released for any other purpose than to try to scare people, I guess, in the west?

Ross replied:

Clearly, Charlie, it's a propaganda event. We can see on the tape other camera men roaming around from the Al Qaeda propaganda operation.

If it's a propaganda event, why show it?

This is sort of funny: GOP gives standing ovation to Ala. senator who punched Dem.