He and at least one other Mariner got a brutal stomach virus in that Texas series and Felix looked visible weak that day. In fact his fastball velocity in that game was ditty-bopping between 90 and 93 with one or two touch-95 pitches. Not his usual 92 2-seamer, 95 4-seamer arsenal.
And he was highly unlucky in that start. 8 Ks in 5 innings despite the queasiness and dehydration and obvious velocity drop, but the Rangers scored 4 runs in one inning because they just happened to get two guys on base in front of a big honking HR. It happens.
As far as which starts Felix has had where he was legitimately not dominating? At least two of the starts in which he gave up 4 runs or more were 99% bad luck. There was one in Oakland which the Mariners ended up winning 6-5 where Felix gave up 5 runs, 3 in the 2nd inning on a hit sequence that went something like:
Infield Single (9 pitch at bat)Bloop SingleSac BuntWalk (13 pitch PA)KRocket double to the LCF gap scoring all three (fastball outer third that they just guessed right on)K
And Niehaus stupidly called it a rocky inning when he looked fine to me. And that start against the As, you can see the 8 Ks and 3 walks...his typical line...and he had just thrown too many pitches because they were being pesky little gnats and fouling things off when he gave up the 2 run homer in the 5th.
Basically...I can only think of one start where I was actually mad at Felix...that start against the Angels...and that may have actually been bad luck too.
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