Waking up this morning, I expected to see reams of stories about Dice-K and Ichiro battling it out last night in the Seattle-Boston clash.
I didn’t realise Felix Hernandez was starting for the Mariners.
He has long been known as King Felix and anyone who wasn’t convinced that this youngster deserved the title will now be bowing at their master’s feet begging for forgiveness.  In a game watched by millions around the world, Hernandez decided that he wasn’t interested in being the support act. The spotlight was shining on Fenway last night. The newly slim-lined Felix waltzed on to the stage and made it his own.
I know what I’ll be watching when I get home from work this evening. The joys of archived games on MLB.com!
1 comment
Lots to take in from this game, but one factor that really stood out is the way that Hernandez can induce groundballs seemingly at will. In his first two starts this season his groundball out to flyout ratio has been 7.75 to 1 (very small sample size, but interesting none the less). When Felix is on his game, batters just seem to struggle to get the ball up in the air. With Jose Lopez stopping (almost) everything coming his way at second base, that’s a potent combination.