Hernandez with his take on his start

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

April 08, 2010, 8:19am

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Five days after holding the Red Sox to one run over seven innings at Fenway Park, O's right-hander David Hernandez was not able to duplicate that outing vs. Boston. "They made me work tonight. I made it hard on myself not throwing strikes early in the count. I had to use my fastball to try and get by," Hernandez said. He struggled with command early on and needed 50 pitches to get through the first two innings. On the night he gave up seven hits and two runs over 4 1/3 innings, throwing 102 pitches but just 57 for strikes.

David Hernandez discusses his outing with Mark Viviano after the O's 4-0 loss

"It felt like they were more patient than they were in Boston but I have to throw my off-speed pitches for strikes and I wasn't able to do that tonight. One through nine they keep coming after you." Hernandez falls to 3-3, 3.28 on the year. He allowed solo homers in the first and fifth. This was his first start of the year where he failed to pitch at least five innings. "When you go up against a guy like Beckett you can't let them put up a one spot in the first. I just didn't execute pitches tonight."