King Felix Stats To Watch

Felix Hernandez is in one of those Hernandez grooves. He’s 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA in his past five starts, with 59 strikeouts and seven walks in 53 innings over that stretch. He only had three whiffs in his most recent start, dealing an efficient 89 pitches in eight innings against the Royals.

Hernandez’s six starts against the Yankees can be divided up into three good ones and three not-as-good ones. The past two fall into the latter, 10 earned runs in 13 innings last season.

The changeup was not the wipe-out pitch it usually is for Hernandez in those two starts. It yielded four hits -- a single, double, triple, and homer -- and netted just two outs.

Since giving up three home runs to the White Sox, Hernandez has not allowed a home run. He might be due. In his past eight starts, he’s allowed 50 fly balls and 38 line drives without one leaving the park.

Alex Rodriguez, who has 299 home runs with the Yankees, does not have one in 21 at-bats against Hernandez. In fact, Hernandez is the pitcher whom Rodriguez has faced the most without even recording an extra-base hit.

Two Yankees have great numbers against Hernandez: Robinson Cano (.412 batting average in 34 at-bats) and Mark Teixeira (.339 batting average with five homers in 64 at-bats).

Cano has hits in his past five at-bats against Hernandez. Teixeira is 5-for-9 with four walks against Hernandez, dating back to the start of 2011.

Freddy G. Stats To Watch

Freddy Garcia has won his past four decisions against the Mariners, a streak that started in 2006 with the White Sox.

Garcia got dinged a bit by the left-handed hitters on the Athletics his last time out, giving up seven hits and a walk to the 19 he faced. Garcia tried to pitch lefties away, but the Athletics were able to connect on pitches that got too much plate.

It’s hard to fault Garcia too much for that start. Two of the four runs he allowed were on a homer on a ankle-high curveball that Yoenis Cespedes hit out. When Garcia is going well, he gets outs with that pitch. Of the other 23 pitches he threw below the knees in that game, he got four outs, including three whiffs.

Ichiro on the Defensive

As noted in yesterday’s notes from the Stats & Information Group, Ichiro Suzuki entered yesterday ranked No. 2 among right fielders in Defensive Runs Saved (he’s now tied with Oakland’s Josh Reddick for the top spot.

We may explore this in greater depth in the near future, but the most significant thing he’ll bring defensively is a throwing arm that is a baserunner deterrent.

What does that mean?

There have been 76 opportunities this season in which a runner had a chance to go first to third or second to home on a single, first to home on a double, or take a base on a fly ball to Ichiro. Of those 76, the runner has advanced 27 times (including once to account for Seattle’s only run on Monday).

So just 36 percent of runners have advanced on Ichiro this season. That’s a HUGE improvement from his rate last season (56 percent) and currently ranks lowest among all AL right fielders. For comparative purposes, runners have taken an extra base 56 percent of the time on Nick Swisher this season.