Felix Deserves Better

So, add that one to the list of painful losses. One thing that wasn’t painful tonight, though, was watching King Felix pitch. His line pretty much sums it up:

7 IP, 5 hits, 1 ER, BB, 9 SO

Not to mention the fact that the one run he did allow, came as a result of a missed fan interference call. Umpires continue to suck, what else is new? Felix was absolutely brilliant in every category – he threw 65% strikes, he missed bats, and he would have easily gone 8 innings if not for a sore right leg. He had good command with all of his pitches, but the 2 that really stood out were his curve and his slider. He threw tons of strikes with both – 75% with his slider, and 70% with his curve.

No one could figure out either pitch, and because of that, no one could touch him. He buckled plenty of knees with that curve, and missed plenty of bats with the slider. Unfortunately, both Mark Lowe and the defense let him down, and he was once again robbed of his 13th win. Much like Zack Greinke is held down by his terrible team, Felix has recently been held down by the Mariners terrible bullpen. Sadly, he’s starting to fall out of Cy Young consideration. Right now, he deserves to be right up there with guys like Roy Halladay, Josh Beckett, and Justin Verlander – but if the bullpen doesn’t start holding down his leads, the voters are going to forget about him fast.

Speaking of Verlander, we face him tomorrow, so that should be a barrel of fun.

You can follow me on Twitter here