| Final 10th | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
| Baltimore | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 0 |
| N.Y. Yankees « | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 1 |
Nice comeback win for the Yanks tonight in the Bronx, coming back from 5-0 down to win 6-5 in 10. For now, however, we must start with the bad, and that was Phil Hughes.
Hughes was once again awful. In 4.1 innings pitched, the right-hander allowed 5 runs on 7 hits. His ERA is now 13.94, and he's lasted a total of 10.1 innings in three starts. His velocity is still below the norm. Tonight, he was averaging just 89.05 mph and he topped out at 90.9. Unless he's hurt, there's no reason why he should have lost 2.5 mph on his heater, so I'm as confused by all of this as you probably are. It's not time to take him out of the rotation yet, but with Colon throwing the ball well if this continues that's an idea the Yankees might have to take seriously. If the times comes then maybe you move Hughes to the pen for a while, or better yet, send him to AAA. Either way, right now the kid looks lost out there.
Onto the positives..... Bartolo Colon was once again very solid in relief of Hughes, throwing three scoreless innings and allowing the Yankees to mount their comeback. Between his solid spring and good start to the season, the guy has proven to be a very nice pickup, at least so far.
After being no-hit over the first four by Jake Arreita the Yanks started their comeback in the 5th when Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano hit back to back doubles to get the Yanks on the board.
An inning later Mark Teixeira blooped a double to left with two on to drive in a run and Alex Rodriguez followed with a sac fly to cut the lead to two.
The Yankees continued their comeback with another single run in the 7th, this one coming in on groundout by Russell Martin to drive in Nick Swisher, who led of the inning with a walk and moved to third on a double by Curtis Granderson.
It remained 5-4 Baltimore until the 9th (I'll get to Joba's outing in a moment), but Posada took the first Kevin Gregg offering f the inning and smacked a solo homer into the Yanks pen to tie it at five.
Mariano Rivera came on to pitch a scoreless top of the 10th setting things up for the Yanks in the bottom half of the inning. Tex led off with a walk, and then the red hot A-Rod doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Following a line out by Cano, Nick Swisher came up and hit a fly ball to right, just deep enough to allow Tex to beat Markakis' throw and come around to score the winning run. PIE!
OK, now on to Joba Chamberlain. Colon got into a little trouble in the 8th after putting runners on 1st and 3rd with one out before leaving the game. Joba came in to face Mark Reynolds and the second pitch he threw was wild and went to the backstop. Felix Pie, who was on 3rd, tried to score, but the ball took a Yankees bounce and Martin was able to get it to Joba in time to block the plate and tag Pie out for the second out of the inning. Joba would eventually strike out Reynolds to end the threat and probably save the game for the Yanks. He then worked a 1-2-3 9th to finish off his solid outing.
One more thing about Joba: While Hughes' velocity is missing, Joba, at least for one night, found his. Tonight, his fastball averaged 94.59 and topped out at 96.3. I know velocity isn't everything, but if Joba can keep his fastball around 95 he's going to be very successful.
After their little two-game sweep of the O's the Yanks are now 7-4 and in first place by themselves atop the AL East. Tomorrow night they open up a three-game set with the AL Champion Texas Ranger. First pitch tomorrow is 7:05 PM, and Ivan Nova will be facing Rangers southpaw Matt Harrison.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: The Bullpen HONORABLE MENTION: Alex Rodriguez
Hughes was once again awful. In 4.1 innings pitched, the right-hander allowed 5 runs on 7 hits. His ERA is now 13.94, and he's lasted a total of 10.1 innings in three starts. His velocity is still below the norm. Tonight, he was averaging just 89.05 mph and he topped out at 90.9. Unless he's hurt, there's no reason why he should have lost 2.5 mph on his heater, so I'm as confused by all of this as you probably are. It's not time to take him out of the rotation yet, but with Colon throwing the ball well if this continues that's an idea the Yankees might have to take seriously. If the times comes then maybe you move Hughes to the pen for a while, or better yet, send him to AAA. Either way, right now the kid looks lost out there.
Onto the positives..... Bartolo Colon was once again very solid in relief of Hughes, throwing three scoreless innings and allowing the Yankees to mount their comeback. Between his solid spring and good start to the season, the guy has proven to be a very nice pickup, at least so far.
After being no-hit over the first four by Jake Arreita the Yanks started their comeback in the 5th when Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano hit back to back doubles to get the Yanks on the board.
An inning later Mark Teixeira blooped a double to left with two on to drive in a run and Alex Rodriguez followed with a sac fly to cut the lead to two.
The Yankees continued their comeback with another single run in the 7th, this one coming in on groundout by Russell Martin to drive in Nick Swisher, who led of the inning with a walk and moved to third on a double by Curtis Granderson.
It remained 5-4 Baltimore until the 9th (I'll get to Joba's outing in a moment), but Posada took the first Kevin Gregg offering f the inning and smacked a solo homer into the Yanks pen to tie it at five.
OK, now on to Joba Chamberlain. Colon got into a little trouble in the 8th after putting runners on 1st and 3rd with one out before leaving the game. Joba came in to face Mark Reynolds and the second pitch he threw was wild and went to the backstop. Felix Pie, who was on 3rd, tried to score, but the ball took a Yankees bounce and Martin was able to get it to Joba in time to block the plate and tag Pie out for the second out of the inning. Joba would eventually strike out Reynolds to end the threat and probably save the game for the Yanks. He then worked a 1-2-3 9th to finish off his solid outing.
One more thing about Joba: While Hughes' velocity is missing, Joba, at least for one night, found his. Tonight, his fastball averaged 94.59 and topped out at 96.3. I know velocity isn't everything, but if Joba can keep his fastball around 95 he's going to be very successful.
After their little two-game sweep of the O's the Yanks are now 7-4 and in first place by themselves atop the AL East. Tomorrow night they open up a three-game set with the AL Champion Texas Ranger. First pitch tomorrow is 7:05 PM, and Ivan Nova will be facing Rangers southpaw Matt Harrison.
| Hitters | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | #P | AVG | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B Gardner LF | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 29 | .150 | .227 | .225 |
| D Jeter SS | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | .233 | .306 | .256 |
| M Teixeira 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 26 | .225 | .367 | .550 |
| A Rodriguez 3B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 20 | .412 | .512 | .882 |
| R Cano 2B | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 | .326 | .340 | .587 |
| N Swisher RF | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 22 | .211 | .298 | .237 |
| J Posada DH | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 | .189 | .231 | .595 |
| C Granderson CF | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | .194 | .275 | .444 |
| R Martin C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14 | .289 | .325 | .579 |
| Totals | 37 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 164 | |||
| BATTING 2B: A Rodriguez 2 (4, J Arrieta, M Gonzalez); R Cano (6, J Arrieta); M Teixeira (1, J Arrieta); C Granderson 2 (3, K Gregg, J Berken) HR: J Posada (5, 9th inning off K Gregg 0 on, 0 Out) RBI: R Cano (8), M Teixeira (11), A Rodriguez (9), R Martin (9), J Posada (8), N Swisher (7) SF: A Rodriguez, N Swisher GIDP: R Cano Yankees RISP: 2-13 (M Teixeira 1-1, D Jeter 0-1, C Granderson 0-1, R Martin 0-2, B Gardner 0-2, J Posada 0-1, R Cano 1-3, N Swisher 0-2) Team LOB: 7 | ||||||||||
| FIELDING E: R Martin (2, throw) DP: 1 (D Jeter-R Cano-M Teixeira). | ||||||||||
| Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | PC-ST | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P Hughes | 4.1 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 70-51 | 13.94 |
| B Colon | 3.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 54-35 | 3.97 |
| J Chamberlain | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13-10 | 3.68 |
| M Rivera (W, 1-0) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7-5 | 0.00 |
| Totals | 10.0 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 144-101 | |
| PITCHING First-pitch strikes/Batters faced: P Hughes 16/20; B Colon 8/13; J Chamberlain 4/4; M Rivera 1/3 Called strikes-Swinging strikes-Foul balls-In Play strikes: P Hughes 14-4-16-17; B Colon 15-4-8-8; J Chamberlain 3-3-2-2; M Rivera 0-0-2-3 Ground Balls-Fly Balls: P Hughes 2-9; B Colon 2-4; J Chamberlain 1-1; M Rivera 3-0 Game Scores: P Hughes 31 | |||||||||
