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Athletics-Mariners Preview

Sep 28, 2009 - 4:19 PM By PAUL DIGIACOMO STATS Senior Editor

Oakland (75-81) at Seattle (80-76), 10:10 p.m. EDT

After watching fellow AL Cy Young Award hopefuls Zack Greinke and CC Sabathia have dominating performances over the weekend, Felix Hernandez will take his turn trying to impress the voters when the Seattle Mariners host the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night.

Kansas City's Greinke allowed one run and struck out eight over seven innings Sunday to beat Minnesota 4-1 and improve to 16-8 with a major league-best 2.06 ERA. He's second in the AL behind Detroit right-hander Justin Verlander with 237 strikeouts.

Sabathia was even better than Greinke on Saturday, allowing one hit and striking out eight in seven innings to lead New York over Boston 3-0. The left-hander, who won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award while with Cleveland, tied his career high with 19 wins and lowered his ERA to 3.21.

Those outings came just a few days after Hernandez struck out a season-best 11 over eight innings to defeat Toronto 5-4 on Thursday and improve to 17-5 with a 2.49 ERA. The right-hander has 207 strikeouts, the first time in his career he's surpassed 200.

Hernandez is 5-0 with a 1.57 ERA in his last six starts, Greinke is 5-0 with a 0.72 ERA in his last seven and Sabathia has gone 9-0 with a 2.04 ERA in 11 outings since Aug. 2.

"I'd vote for Felix, without a doubt," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. "I don't know if anybody has impacted the club this year greater than he has. You've got to remember, too, he's 23 years old."

Hernandez, though, said he thinks Greinke should win the Cy Young, while Sabathia has said he believes Hernandez should take the honor as the AL's top pitcher.

Hernandez is one of the main reasons why Seattle (80-76) is closing in on a winning season after finishing an AL-worst 61-101 last year. The Mariners, however, have lost three straight and four of five.

"I know it's on everybody's mind," Wakamatsu told the Mariners' official Web site. "The improvement we made this season would be all for naught if we don't at least get to .500 and for me, at least one game over. We want to go into the offseason having established a winning environment.

"It has been a decent year for us. We are heading in the right direction."

Seattle will open its final homestand with a three-game series against Oakland, which is in last place in the AL West. The Mariners are 11-5 in the season series, going 5-1 at Safeco Field.

Hernandez has faced the A's (75-81) once this season and didn't receive a decision after allowing five runs and seven hits over five innings of an 8-5 win at Oakland on April 11. He's 7-4 with a 2.93 ERA in 13 starts against the A's, who have been playing well down the stretch.

Oakland is 17-8 in September and coming off a weekend road series in which it took two of three from first-place Los Angeles. It's the first time since June 2008 the A's have had a winning record in a month.

"(The Angels) are a really good team over there, and they've been on top of the division for a while," designated hitter Jack Cust said. "But anytime you've got pitching like we have, with young guys who should be around here for a while ... we can make a push."

One of those youngsters is Trevor Cahill, Tuesday's scheduled starter.

The 21-year-old Cahill (10-12, 4.45) improved to 4-0 with a 2.43 ERA in his last seven starts by allowing one run over 5 2-3 innings to defeat Texas 9-1 last Tuesday.

The rookie right-hander has made three starts this year against the Mariners and is 0-2 despite a 1.89 ERA.