Saturday, May 12, 2012
Yankees.com: Hughes extends Yanks’ run of rotation excellence
As they prepare to welcome back a fixture to their rotation, the Yankees may be discovering that their current starters can hold their own quite well.
Phil Hughes became the latest Yankees starter to impress on the team’s homestand, pitching 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a 6-2 win over Seattle on Saturday. When Andy Pettitte takes the mound Sunday in his first start since 2010, he will be in position to finish off a sweep of the Mariners.
With just one turn of the rotation, what was a major sore spot for the Yankees now looks like it could be a strength. Hughes was great today, even with the caveat that it was against the Mariners. The Yankees got help from names that have not been helping them lately (Teix, Martin and newcomer Jayson Nix) and one that has been really hot recently (Raul Ibanez, who might actually be a Yankee come August).
As the recap notes, Pettitte returns tomorrow as the Yankees look for the sweep. Let’s hope Pettitte’s velocity is no longer an issue (or at least let him be such a crafty veteran that 85 MPH fastballs won’t hurt him).
Comments
I don’t know that Fuse’s last 2 outings do all that much to make me trust him very far, but at least he did enough that my biggest rotation worry is now Pettitte and whether his return is really going to stick.
We’ll have our first indication tomorrow.
The “one turn through the rotation” should be moderating our enthusiasm, but it’s good to seem them doing something we want them to be doing on a regular basis.
Hughes’ next start comes against the pretty-decent-offensively Jays. Not sure if Vlad will be ready by then, which would be a nice extra little test. (Possibly) If Hughes can turn in this kind of performance in Toronto, I’ll start getting excited.
Zombie Hughes?
[4] That or it’s the old dead cat bounce tease.
IIRC, the jays absolutely owned Hughes one year (2010?). Would be nice to see him pitch well.
Hughes made his debut against the Jays, right? I was at the game, but I forget who they were playing. It was the first of many Hughes starts that ended up being a disappointment.
Yes, Jays. They had Frank Thomas that year.
“I kind of expect [Pettite] to be what he was in 2010,” Girardi said before Saturday’s game. “I don’t know if that is quite fair after taking a year and a half. That’s what I know. That’s what I’m using to seeing—him really grinding out starts, him getting double-play balls. Doing little things to help himself get out of innings.”
Why didn’t he just say “battling”?
It’s gonna be a little early for a drunk blog (gametime is 9:30am for me). But as they say, if it was easy, everybody would do it.
Wow. At what point do we conclude that maybe, just maybe, Baltimore is actually a pretty good team ? Or at least, better than they looked on paper, and not just freaking lucky ?
[11] B-more’s Pythag is 19-15. I wouldn’t print those World Series tickets just yet.
[12] Yeah, but isn’t 19-15 still way above their projection ?
[13] I guess SG would have to look at how they compare to what they’re log5 was to this point. A lot games against Toronto in there. A series with MIN, CWS and OAK in there, too. They are 2-4 against NYY and 1-3 against TEX.
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