It’s not that Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez has grown unappreciative of All-Star game recognitiion, though his reaction to the news when pitching coach Carl Willis called him this morning was typical Felix.

“Carl called me at 9 in the morning. I thought, ‘what is going on now?’” Hernandez said. “I picked it up and ‘Hello, you made the All-Star team.’ I said ‘Thank you. I’ll see you in two hours.’’ Then I went back to sleep.”

This will be Felix’s third All-Star game, and last year he didn’t pitch.

“I think this year I will be able to pitch and that’ll be awesome. The first time I was there I only threw seven pitches and it was so short,” he said.

Felix has two starts remaining before the All-Star game, and is 6-5 with a 3.09 earned run average in 16 starts. He’s worked 110 innings and struck out 114.

“I feel more comfortable because I’m now pitching pretty good,” Felix said. “ Before, I was not doing good. I’ve got to do better than this. That’s why I was so mad because I was not doing my job. Now I’m turning it back and my performance is good. I’ve got to keep it going.”

Which All-Star does he want to have his locker nexts to?

“Probably next to AdrianBeltre. That would be awesome,” Fdlix said of his former teammate. “ He probably wouldn’t like it.””

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