Felix V The Big Unit

Every now and then there are pitching match-ups that you look at and know that something special is about to occur.

Randy Johnson has long been the dominant lefty pitcher in baseball with his long, gangly frame and the KFC beard staring down hitters and abusing them with his heat and the hard and tight slider which for some reason leaves a lot of lefty batters feeling a bit queezy and wanting the day off.

Felix Hernandez is a 19 year old pitcher who has recently been brought up to the big club and minor league hitters are happy. Yet to fully fill out, Hernandez is able to get his fastball into the high 90's already and throws an assortment of hard and sharp breaking pitches that has seen him climb to the top of Baseball America's prospect ratings. The last time someone came up so early to this kind of hype was Rick Ankiel so lets hope Hernandez has better luck.

In short, this was a match-up between one of baseballs most dominant forces over the last decade and someone who could usurp him as the next immovable object that hitters want to take the day off against.

The game was set up as a landmark event and it lived up to those expectations.

Johnson threw as good a game as he has done in Yankee pinstripes allowing just three seventh inning hits, striking out seven before turning the game over to the bullpen in the top of the 8th. Hernandez countered by going eight and with the help of some great Mariner infield D (I do like Betancourt) matched The Unit for K's and allowed just four hits. The sad thing for Hernandez was that he learned the hard way that Sheffield can juice anyones fastball and, coupled with another solo shot the inning before by Robinson Cano gave New York all the runs they needed as the Yankee pen closed out the game to seal a 2-0 win.

I suppose this game tells us that, even though it hasn't been a vintage season by Johnson, he still rules the roost but Felix Hernandez is right on his shoulder waiting to take over. This kid can hang with the big boys but it might help to have someone other than Gary Sheffield at the plate sitting on a fastball.