It doesn't get much better than the two best teams in baseball clashing, CC Sabathia vs. David Price on the mound and first place on the line. Both pitchers even lived up to the advance billing Tuesday night with eight shutout innings apiece. But neither got the upper hand because the game was decided on a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.  With both the Yankees and Rays in solid playoff position, was the series opener between the two AL East teams a "pressure-packed" game? Because that's one of the major arguments for Sabathia, Price and Boston's Clay Buchholz over Seattle's Felix Hernandez for the AL Cy Young Award. Well, that and wins. But it's pretty common knowledge now that wins aren't necessarily a good barometer of how well someone pitches. Just look at that incredibly bad Mariners offense (whose 3.19 runs/game is the worst since the 1981 Blue Jays). If you're just trying to pick the league's best pitcher and going by the numbers that the pitchers can control, Hernandez (214 strikeouts, 1.09 WHIP to go along with a league-best 2.39 ERA) is the runaway winner despite his 11-11 record.  Price (17-6, 2.75 ERA) may have had a better shot at the award if he'd won last night, but then again ... what more could he do than hold the Yankees scoreless for eight innings? Is he a worse pitcher because his teammates couldn't score a run while he was in the game? Sabathia (19-6, 3.03 ERA) still has the higher win total anyway, which has make him the leader by default in the Cy Young race.  However, if you compare Hernandez with Sabathia on a start-by-start basis (as Sports Illustrated's Joe Posnanski has done), Felix is king. Another argument for Sabathia over Hernandez is that CC's faced tougher offenses on a more frequent basis -- except that they've faced each other's teams three times apiece. (And Hernandez is 3-0 with a 0.35 ERA vs. the Yankees.)  The folks at FanGraphs.com asked their (admittedly sabermetric-inclined) readers to weigh in and Hernandez is winning in a landslide.  I admit, I had CC on top when it came time to vote in our Power Rankings, but when it comes to picking the best pitcher in the AL this season the numbers overwhelmingly point to King Felix.  YOUR THOUGHTS: Who's been the AL's best pitcher this season?  To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor  . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to  . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to
Forget Price vs. Sabathia, King Felix is AL's best pitcher - Fantasy Windup: A community for fantasy baseball news and strategy - USATODAY.com