Seattle Mariners' "King Felix" wins AL Cy Young award

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez was a clear winner of the American League Cy Young Award Thursday despite registering only 13 wins during the Major League Baseball season.

The 24-year-old Hernandez, nicknamed "King Felix," compiled a 13-12 record for the lowly Mariners (61-101) but led the league in earned run average (ERA) at 2.27 and innings (249 2/3) and was second in strikeouts (232).

The Venezuelan, who matched the lowest win total of any starting pitcher to have won the award, was named first on 21 of the 28 ballots cast by two writers in each American League city.

Hernandez was stunned when he received the call informing him he had won the award as the league's top pitcher.

"My mind was 'really? really? I win the Cy Young?'" Hernandez told reporters in a conference call from Venezuela. "I started crying and my wife jumped on me and my whole family started jumping around the house."

Hard-throwing right-hander Hernandez, runner-up to Kansas City's Zack Greinke last year after posting a 19-5 record for Seattle, and 2007 winner Sabathia were the only pitchers named on every ballot.

Hernandez said he was disappointed when he did not win in 2009. "It hurt me a little bit when I didn't win the Cy Young last year," he said. "I thought I probably would win."

In 2010, he won six fewer games but was more dominant although he suffered from a severe lack of run support.

The Mariners, who averaged 3.2 runs a game in 2010, scored an average of 2.4 per game when starter Hernandez was on the mound and produced two or fewer runs in 15 of his starts.

In nine of his no-decisions Hernandez pitched to a 1.92 ERA.

His victory total broke the previous lowest for a starter in a full season, set last year by National League winner Tim Lincecum who was 15-7 for the San Francisco Giants.

Greinke had the previous AL low wins total for a starter over a full season with a 16-8 mark for the Royals.

Hernandez's tally equaled the figure that 1981 NL winner Fernando Valenzuela had when he was 13-7 for the Los Angeles Dodgers in a season that was interrupted for 50 days by a players' strike.

(Editing by Frank Pingue)