The AL Cy Young award leaders for 2014 are starting to establish themselves and names like Felix Hernandez, Masahiro Tanaka and Mark Buehrle are the early names in contention and the King could be on top of the list now after throwing seven shutout innings with a career high 15 strikeouts in the Seattle Mariners win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Hernandez ended up with a no-decision after the Mariners and Rays stayed scoreless into the ninth inning and he had all of his pitches working in the matchup. Joe Maddon said he felt Hernandez was even better than when he pitched a perfect game against the team two years ago and now Hernandez is the second player to have 15 strikeouts this season and he also moved past 1,800 strikeouts in his career and that is an impressive number. The Mariners are now four games over .500 for the first time since 2009 and Felix is truly pitching like an ace this season and could be in line to get his second Cy Young award.
Hernandez previously had 13 strikeouts three times in his career and now he is the leader in K's this season with 106 in the major leagues. Hernandez also lowered his ERA from 2.57 to 2.39 and he has won his past five starts and now the Mariners are winners of seven of eight games and two in a row and have a 33-29 record and are currently the second wild card team in the AL.
