Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Mariners have fallen to fourth place in the American League West and have way too many impact players on the disabled list to make any serious charge forward. That doesn’t mean that nothing is going their way however. Ace pitcher Felix Hernandez is having another stellar year. He will go out against the New York Yankees on Sunday and try to win his third consecutive decision. Chances are he will do just that.
Hernandez has given up 1 or 0 runs in seven of his last ten starts. The other three had him give up five runs twice and four in the other. I think in those starts he was pitching left-handed or something. Whatever the case, he actually won the start where he gave up four runs which is a big deal for the injury prone Mariners. Tomorrow they will likely need a solid start from their ace. Lucky for them he shut down the Yankees just a few starts ago and should have no problem doing so again.
It does seem that if Hernandez give sup more than one run it turns into five or so and a loss. The Mariners aren’t in a pennant race right now but their little losing skids tend to turn to wins when “King” Felix is on the mound. The Yanks are definitely not a push over but Hernandez has been nasty this year when he has his good stuff. The problem for the Yankees is that he almost always has his good stuff. I think the stopper role for a starting pitcher, one who stops losing streaks, sits as good around Hernandez’ s neck as anyone in baseball.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
