Phil Hughes Falters as New York Yankees Bats Explode
August 26, 2011 · Joseph Browne · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
The New York Yankees hit three grand slams in one game yesterday, a feat never before achieved by any MLB team in the history of the sport. Lost in all the hoopla, however, is the stark reality that the Yankees, despite some recent positive signs, do not have a reliable pitcher in Phil Hughes.
While one start does not a season make, when it’s this late in the season, and your team is more than likely headed to the playoffs, management likes to know within reason what they can expect from the members of their staff. Phil Hughes, with his 2 innings pitched, 7 hits allowed, and 6 earned runs surrendered against a mediocre hitting team like the Oakland A’s, just sent notice to Yankee management that the number two spot in the rotation is still very much up for grabs.
Since returning from a very extended stay on the disabled list, Hughes had started seven games and relieved in one prior to yesterday’s matchup. Removing that one relief outing from the equation, Hughes had pitched a total of 41 innings and given up 16 earned runs over those seven starts, good for a very respectable ERA of 3.51.
Moreover, those totals included a blowup game on July 22nd (strangely enough against Oakland as well) where Hughes, despite being granted a 14-2 lead by the third inning, couldn’t get out of the fifth and was ultimately pulled after surrendering 7 earned runs on 9 hits.
With the exception of the July 22nd debacle, since his return on July 6th Hughes had pitched at least 5 innings in each of the remaining six starts prior to yesterday, and in all but one of those six he had gone at least six innings. More impressively, in those six games, again excluding the July 22nd start vs. the A’s, he had pitched 36.2 innings with only 28 hits allowed. For a guy who looked like he was auditioning to be the BP pitcher earlier in the season that statistic by itself is remarkable.
Clearly the Yankees, based on those numbers, could begin to feel good about Phil Hughes as the postseason approaches. He had seemingly regained consistent velocity and movement and was pitching with the kind of smarts that a certain unnamed Yankee pitcher can only dream about. Combined with the stellar performance of Ivan Nova over his most recent starts and the Yankees, after endless discussion in all circles, seemed to have good reason to be cautiously optimistic about their rotation after C.C. Sabathia.
In the immortal words of a certain diminutive, flightless farm bird, however, it seems that the sky did indeed fall on Phil Hughes and the Yankees yesterday. 2 innings pitched, 7 hits allowed, and 6 earned runs surrendered pretty much says it all. While the argument can perhaps be made that Oakland has Hughes’ number, as they say, and has somehow figured him out, the reality is that Hughes doesn’t have the track record just yet where yesterday’s outing can be dismissed as some kind of aberration. It takes years of steady performances to earn that kind of benefit of the doubt, years that Hughes does not have at this point.
The Yankees have 34 games remaining in the season. Hughes will more than likely start at least five, perhaps six of those games. Those remaining starts will provide a solid referendum on Hughes’ capabilities, and provide the Yankees with a window into what they might expect come playoff time.
At this point, however, Ivan Nova is ticketed as the number two starter heading into the playoffs, due as much to the apparent decline of Bartolo Colon as to the results Nova has posted. Should Colon rebound from his recent funk, however, and should Nova continue to impress, outings like yesterday’s will make it very difficult for Yankee manager Joe Girardi to opt for Hughes over either of those options.
This is not exactly what the Yankees had in mind for Phil Hughes, and certainly not what Phil Hughes had in mind for himself.
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