Felix Hernandez ended his brilliant month of August the same way he started it: with a complete-game shutout. Hernandez shut out the Twins Monday and got just enough support for a 1-0 Mariners win.
Hernandez opened the month of August with a 1-0 shutout victory against the New York Yankees and closed it in similar style by allowing just five hits against the Twins. He improved to 13-5 on the season, including 4-0 in August. Over 32.2 innings in August, he's given up just five earned runs, posting a 1.38 ERA.
Twins starter Liam Hendriks nearly matched Hernandez, allowing just one earned run and three hits over nine innings. Hendriks shut out the Mariners for the first seven innings, but Eric Thames broke the scoreless tie with a solo home run in the eighth inning.
The Twins had a great opportunity to take the lead in the seventh inning when Justin Morneau led off the inning with a triple, but the next three batters grounded out, stranding Morneau at third.
The teams will play Game 2 of their four-game series Tuesday at 8:10 p.m. ET.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Minnesota. For more in-depth coverage of this series, check out Twins blog Twinkie Town and Mariners blog Lookout Landing. For more news, notes and analysis from around baseball, visit Baseball Nation.