The Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees will face off on Tuesday night with two of the best pitchers in the game going head to head as Felix Hernandez takes on CC Sabathia are pitching against each other for the first time in their careers.
Both players have won Cy Young awards and both are coming into the game on hot streaks this season, as well as against the opposing club. Hernandez has been excellent this season while going 5-2 with a sub 2.00 ERA and he is even hotter over his past five starts, going 0-4 with a sub 1.00 ERA after winning his last start against the Pirates last week. Hernandez has always done well at Yankee Stadium and against the Yankees and this season he is looking to continue that trend after going 4-1 with a 1.13 ERA in his last five starts at the stadium.
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The Mariners are off to a much better month of May than their 8-15 start to the season and now the team is 18-20 after winning four of their last five series. Hernandez has been excellent over his last 10 starts against the Yankees, going 7-2 with a 2.19 ERA and he will try and continue that on Tuesday evening on a nice night in New York. Seattle has a good young core that has started to play better, including Kyle Seager, Justin Smoak and Michael Saunders, as well as Jesus Montero the former Yankees catching prospect.
Hernandez got some extra rest during the weekend as the Mariners retooled their rotation so that Hernandez could start the game on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have been playing better than everyone gave them credit for when the season started after dealing with injuries to Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and other stars, but the team is now first in the AL East and has won six of seven games after getting their five game winning streak snapped on Monday in the doubleheader against the Indians.
The Yankees will get a boost from Curtis Granderson, who is returning to the lineup on Tuesday night after missing the entire season so far since breaking his forearm in spring training. Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay have been excellent since being brought over late in the process for Brian Cashman, as he needed replacements for his injured players and those two have been some of the best for the Yanks. The Mariners have won nine of 13 games, but they have had trouble away from home, as the team is just 7-11 on the season on the road and are 3-8 in their past 11 games. Last season the Mariners went 3-6 in the series and Hernandez won twice during that time, while Sabathia won in a complete game on Aug. 3 at home at Yankee Stadium. It will be the first time the two players face off against each other.
"That's a big matchup right there," Hernandez told the team's website. "I just have to go out there and match him and do whatever we have to do to win the game."