Even if you consider yourself a baseball fan, there’s a good chance you’ve missed what Felix Hernandez has been doing since May 18th. Because he pitches for the usually hapless Seattle Mariners, Hernandez often flies under the radar.
This season, the Mariners are actually relevant and have a chance to make the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They’re currently 1.5 games back of the Royals for the second Wild Card spot in the American League, which makes Felix Hernandez’s performance over the past three months much more important.
Hernandez is in the middle of a record stretch. Seattle’s ace has now started 15 straight games with seven or more innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed. Take a look at his numbers in that span. They’re unreal.
Felix pitches today against the Blue Jays, another team that is 1.5 games back of the second Wild Card spot. In many ways, this — pitching in relevant games in August — is uncharted territory for Felix. He’s never pitched in the postseason.
Apparently Felix brings the heat in more ways than one. #HappyFelixDay #GoMariners pic.twitter.com/4V6GqE6iTW
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 11, 2014
Even if you’re not an M’s fan, happy King Felix Day. And, just remember, if the King was pitching for a team like the Yankees, all you’d be hearing about on SportsCenter is his remarkable success this season.
UPDATE: King Felix extended his streak to 16 consecutive starts.
You can make an excellent argument that Felix Hernandez should be front-runner for AL MVP right now.
— Jonah Keri (@jonahkeri) August 12, 2014
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