Happy Felix Day!
While I was preparing to look at the pitching matchup between Hernandez and Anaheim's Wade LeBlanc this afternoon, I realized that today is the third-to-last Felix Day we get before October. Since our time with the King is short, let's take a look at a few of the milestones we might get to witness before the end of the regular season:
- Tonight will mark Felix's 301st start for Seattle, making him the second pitcher in franchise history to start over 300 games in a Mariners uniform.
- Felix is eight strikeouts away from breaking his season-best total of 232 in 2010.
- #FelixTo20 isn't going to happen by the end of September, but #FelixTo17 might (though it's not quite as catchy).
- Felix has eclipsed the rWAR totals he set for the previous three seasons, with 6.8 rWAR, and is closing in fast on the career-best 7.1 rWAR he reached in his Cy Young season.
- If Felix holds his 2.14 ERA through September, he'll be the third Mariners starter to lead the American League in ERA (provided that Chris Sale and his 2.20 ERA doesn't catch up first).
- This last one depends more on Hisashi Iwakuma than it does on Felix: If Felix maintains his 0.92 WHIP and Iwakuma whittles his down from 1.04 to 0.99 or better, the duo will be the first pair to finish a season with WHIPs below 1.00 since the Red Sox' Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez in 2002.
Game info
- Mariners @ Angels, 7:05 p.m. PST
- Tonight's game will be televised on ROOT Sports, broadcast on 710 ESPN, and available to out-of-market viewers at MLB TV here.
- Wild card status update: The Royals have an off day today, but still managed to leapfrog the A's for the first wild card spot after Oakland dropped their series finale 7-2 to the Rangers. The Mariners currently sit 1.5 games back of the A's for the second wild card spot.
- According to MLB.com's Greg Johns, Taijuan Walker will return to Seattle's rotation tomorrow to make his first start since July against the Houston Astros.