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Felix Hernandez got lit up bad in Cleveland the last time out with Jesus Montero behind the plate. Tonight, he’ll have a new battery-mate as John Jaso gets to catch him in a regular season game for the first time.

Catching Hernandez and all of those heavily-moving pitches is never an easy task. We saw Montero have some problems in the Cleveland game, giving up a passed ball that led to an Indians run.

Hernandez had problems of his own that had nothing to do with Montero. He could not use his two-seam fastball to any degree of effectiveness. And when a sinker doesn’t sink, that’s bad news for a pitcher — especially Hernandez, who has come to rely on the pitch as his bread-and-butter.

Mariners manager Eric Wedge said the Cleveland game was just a bad day for Hernandez and he’s ready to leave it at that. Wedge expects a much better outing tonight as Hernandez gets prepared to take on Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers.

“I think he’s a guy who’s at his best when it’s tougher, when it’s tighter,” Wedge said. “He’s one of the best. And when he’s facing good clubs, or in tight situations or when his team needs it most, that’s when he’s at his best.”

Many of you have noted — as has the media — that Hernandez’s four-seam fastball seems to be down a couple of miles per hour from where it generally was the past couple of seasons. It is also down from the 96 mph he used to crank it up to five years ago.

Now, it’s one thing not to have velocity on your four-seamer when your sinker is moving the way it’s supposed to. But when you don’t have an effective sinker and you have to rely on the four-seam fastball more, the hitters know this, too. And it’s a little easier to fool hitters sometimes when you can just overwhelm them with 96 mph stuff rather than doing the same with a 92 mph pitch they can catch up to.

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Boston Red Sox Go Live With Advanced ProVenue(R) Ticketing Platform From Tickets.com to Process First Public On-Sale …
COSTA MESA, CA–(Marketwire – December 20, 2010) – Tickets.com — a leading global provider of integrated, high-performance ticketing solutions — recently converted the Boston Red Sox to ProVenue, the industry’s most technologically advanced ticketing platform. The Red Sox upgraded to ProVenue for state-of-the-art features including the system’s ability to facilitate high-volume transactions …

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