Cleveland @ Seattle preview

Cleveland at Seattle

Last Meeting ( Sep 4, 2010 ) Cleveland 4, Seattle 2

Felix Hernandez had an August that was the envy of any pitcher in the majors.

Seattle’s ace right-hander allowed one earned run in his final 37 innings of the month and had 48 strikeouts for a 0.82 ERA.

There was one August start, though, that he would rather forget.

Hernandez was rocked by Cleveland in a 9-1 loss Aug. 15. Hernandez gave up six unearned runs in the seventh inning, including a grand slam by Travis Hafner.

The Venezuelan had thrown six shutout innings before second baseman Chone Figgins’ error with two outs in the seventh allowed the Indians to rally.

Hernandez (10-10, 2.38 ERA) will try to help the Mariners earn a split of their four-game series Sunday against Cleveland rookie Jeanmar Gomez (3-2, 3.08).

In his last 16 starts, Hernandez has a 1.44 ERA. He leads the American League with 211 1/3 innings and is second in ERA (2.38) and strikeouts (200).

His stats have been enough to keep his name in the conversation as a Cy Young Award candidate, but his pedestrian 10-10 record will be tough to overcome.

Cleveland improved to 7-1 in its last eight games at Safeco Field with a 4-2 victory Saturday night, the ninth consecutive game in which the Mariners have scored three runs or fewer.

Mitch Talbot (9-11) allowed an unearned run and five hits in 6 2/3 innings for his first win since June 27. The right-hander was 0-5 with a 6.23 ERA in his previous nine starts.

Gomez is starting in place of Justin Masterson, who did not make the trip to Seattle, instead attending to a family matter in Indiana. Masterson’s start was pushed backed to Tuesday against the Los Angeles Angels.

Gomez has a 3.08 ERA in his seven major league starts. In his most recent start Aug. 28, he earned a win in Cleveland’s 4-3 victory over Kansas City in 10 innings. He allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings.

Former Mariner Shin-Soo Choo is 4-for-10 with six RBIs and three walks in this series.

Russell Branyan, who had a homer in the eighth inning Saturday, has reached base safely in all six games against Cleveland this season. He is hitting .333 (6-for-18) with five runs, three homers, a double, five RBIs and six walks in that stretch.

Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to six games and is batting .407 (11-for-27) during the streak. He also had his 56th multi-hit game of the season Saturday, tops in the majors.