Results tagged ‘ Phil Hughes ’
Rangers headed to the World Series.
Congratulations to the Texas Rangers, the 2010 American League Champions, who are headed to the World Series for the first time in franchise history. If a team deserves to be in the World Series this post season then the Rangers are clearly the team. They have outplayed the opposition so far this post-season and in the ALCS, they completely dominated the New York Yankees. As I said at the beginning of the series, if the Rangers bats wake up, especially Josh Hamilton’s bat, they would win the series. Clearly that is what happened here.
As for the Yankees, tough and disappointing end to the year and their World Series title defense. Still, it is hard for a baseball team at any level of the sport to win when they can’t generate offense with runners in scoring position. The Yankees in this series were a mind numbing 8-for-47 with RISP which isn’t surprising that they were outscored in this series by a wide margin. In a way, the Yankees were lucky to have made that miraculous comeback in game one, otherwise the Rangers would have swept them.
There isn’t much to say about Game 6, other than Phil Hughes didn’t have his best stuff again. As for Colby Lewis, welcome back to The Show. After two years in Japan, he clearly has learned how to pitch instead of being a thrower. And now that he has “learned” how to pitch, he has confidence and it showed. In this series, Lewis held the Yankees to just three runs.
Looking ahead…
I guess the Yankees need to do some work during the off season, and find themselves another starting pitcher along with much needed bullpen help. Of course, the big fish that will be out there after the season is one Cliff Lee. But I do feel that instead of trying to vey for Lee’s services, the Yankees should go after other good pitchers, who will cost the team less in payroll.. As for the bullpen, lets pray that Demaso Marte and Alfredo Aceves comeback healthy. David Robertson has to straighten himself out, if he isn’t shipped out of town and Boone Logan has to say goodbye.
As for the Yankees lineup, it should stay the same for the most part, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the team went out and signed a player like Jayson Werth. It should be an interesting Hot Stove..
Desperate times in the Bronx
The Yankees last night made a desperate move before the start of their rubber game against the Red Sox and decided to start Phil Hughes in place of Dustin Moseley, as they were trying to avoid being swept by their hated division rival. Lets face it, the Yankees had no choice but to start Hughes because of the fact that they have played pretty awful baseball this month. More importantly, yesterday’s game was very important as a Yankee win would’ve reduced their magic number to clinch a playoff spot down to one. And now that Hughes started, and the Yankees had to fight in the 9th and 10th to get this very important victory, the Yankees are indeed a win away from clinching a spot in the post season.
Now that there is only one week remaining in the baseball season (oh man I feel like crying now) it would have been tough for this team to play high intensity games just to get into the post season, and a Yankee loss last night would have created that scenerio. What the Yankees need to do now is win tonight, and get ready for the post season. The Yankees should forget about trying to win the division, as they had many a many opportunities to win games in August and September to clinch the East. But now that those opportunities fell by the wayside, just making the post season should suffice.
The ironic thing about last night though is that the Yankees almost lost the game and had that happened, the anxeity of Yankee fans would have been unbearable.
What a game last night.
After the first inning of last night’s Red Sox/Yankees game, I thought the Yankees were heading towards an easy victory over Daisuke Matsuzaka after they scored 5 runs. With the way Phil Hughes had pitched until last night’s game, there is no way the Yankees were going to blow the lead and potentially blow the game to the Red Sox. So I thought. Little did I know that the Red Sox had fight in them and by the 8th inning of last night’s game, the Red Sox would take the lead thanks to a 2 run homerun by Kevin Youkilis and a solo blast by Victor Martinez.
What happened? Obviously we all knew that the Red Sox would never go out quietly into the night after falling behind 5 runs in the first inning. That ballclub has fight in it and the veterans who have won with that organization know (as Yankee fans do) that anything in this game is possible. So the early deficit didn’t affect the way the Red Sox approached the game after the first inning and they sure made Phil Hughes work. By taking pitches, getting timely hits and hitting long fly balls (Red Sox recorded 2 homeruns against Hughes), Boston gave Hughes his first tough outing of the season. By the end of the 5th inning, Hughes had already reached 100 thrown pitches, obviously not a good thing for the Yankee right hander that on his first four starts, lasted into the 7th inning.
As the Red Sox played homerun derby, the Yankees kept focus, even when they fell behind. And as they did last year, last night, the Yankees were able to get those big clutch hits that propels a team to victory. Say whatever you want about Alex Rodriguez, the guy is clutch and has been clutch–during the regular season at least–throughout his Yankee career. How many big hits, like the one we saw last night, will it take for people to finally appreciate the importance Alex Rodriguez in a Yankee uniform? As we saw on Friday night, all it takes is a mistake by a pitcher and with one swing, A-Rod can turn the game around fast. His two run homerun in the bottom of the 9th tied the game at 9.
That key at-bat rattled Jonathan Papelbon, who did recover somewhat to retire Robinson Cano, yet somehow he lost control of his stuff and wound up hitting Francisco Cervelli which put the winning run on base. After that walk, Papelbon threw a fastball down Thames’s wheelhouse and the game was over.
Keeping up with the Rays..
Last night’s improbable win against Boston keeps the Yankees two games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, clearly a team with a chip on its shoulders, whom also happened to win in walk-off fashion. The Yankees therefore, remain just 2 games behind the very talented Rays, who will come to town for a two game series on Wednesday before the boring and overrated Subway Series begins.
Will 2010 be remembered as the other year of the pitcher?
For those that love reading baseball history, and for those that love watching Baseball Seasons on the MLB Network, now that 1968 will always be remembered as the Year of the Pitcher. That season was the culmination of advantages that the pitchers began to receive after the offensive explosion at the beginning of the decade that saw, among many other things, the fall of Babe Ruth’s single season homerun record to Roger Maris.
That season, Bob Gibson set a modern season ERA record of 1.12 and a World Series record of 17 strike outs. The last 30 game winner in baseball pitched in 1968 as Denny McLain won 31 games for the Detriot Tigers, and was the first 30 game winner in baseball since Dizzy Dean last did it for the St. Louis Cardinals. The rised mound, the wider strike zone helped the pitchers and curbed hitter’s offensive production. After that season the trend began to reverse itself and the hitters were once again given the advantage as the mound was lowered, and strikes zone began to shrink.
During the 70′s all the way through the Steroid Era, there has been a renewed offensive explosion. People have blamed everything from baseball expansion, new friendly hitter ball-parks, a smaller strike zone, juiced baseballs to juiced players. All these factors could explain why there was an offensive explosion since the late 60′s, but in no way could they explain why all of the sudden the tide is once again turning to in the pitcher favor.
In 2010 there has been…
five or six near no hitters or perfect games that were broken up in the late innings. It all started with CC Sabathia in Tampa Bay when he threw 7.2 innings of no hit baseball against the Rays. Later that week, Ricky Romero, of the Blue Jays, took a no hitter into the 7th inning against the White Sox before giving up a two run homer. Phil Hughes of the Yankees had a no hitter in the 7th inning before losing it in Oakland. Last week, both Jared Weaver and Scott Olsen almost achieved baseball immortality before giving up late hits. And I know there has to be more near-no-hitters that I have certainly missed.
In 2010 there has also been a no-hitter and a perfect game thrown. Ubaldo Jimenez of the Rockies pitched a no-hitter against against the Braves and Dallas “Get of his mound” Braden threw a perfect game.
In 2010, the best top 5 pitchers (includes both starters and relievers) in the league have ERA’s below 2. The top 13 pitchers in baseball have an ERA between 1.45 and 1.98. At the same time period last year, 2009 the top 13 had ERA’s of 2.15 and above.
Clearly pitchers have done well in the early part of the season. Even if it is too early in the year to say that 2010 could turn out to be the ”other year of the pitcher,” the pitching around the league has certainly improved from the past.
Closer to Opening Day.
A week from tomorrow the Yankees and Red Sox will open the 2010 Major League season, and for the next six months baseball fans will be on cloud 9. But before the opener, there is still a solid week of Spring Training games left and there are many teams with question marks. Will the Mets have Jose Reyes in the opening day lineup; will Ian Kinsler be healthy for the Rangers and will Cliff Lee begin the season on the disable list? All these questions will likely be answered this week as the final tune up for the regular season gets under way.
As for the Yankees own question marks, Joe Girardi has made his decisions and now we pretty much know who will be the starting centerfielder and the team’s 5th starting pitcher. Curtis Granderson, as I expected, will be the starting centerfielder. This is a no brainer right off the bat since Granderson is an everyday player. Although his defense is suspect he is a more experienced centerfielder than Brett Gardner.
As for the 5th spot in the Yankees rotation, Joe Girardi has made the decision to name Phil Hughes as his starter. This is another no brainer. Phil Hughes’ pitching has been improving over the last few years and if the Yankees want him to develop into a top starting pitcher, he has to start during the season and go through the trials of a regular season. The downside to this is that Hughes will have his innings limited and will likely finish the season in the bullpen.
This decision by Girardi also means that Joba will be in the bullpen for the time being. Hopefully the Yankees will stop toying with Joba and finally keep him in the bullpen where he belongs. Joba is a good pitcher, but he isn’t a starting pitcher, he is a reliever. His work out of the bullpen during the post season speaks for itself. His work as a starting pitcher last year also speaks for itself, and it wasn’t good. So please, please, can Joba stay in the bullpen and be the heir apparent to be the team’s future closer?
In a week….
the Yankees and Red Sox will renew baseball’s biggest, baddest and greatest rivalry in all of baseball. Now that the Yankees are once again World Series champions and the Red Sox are no longer cursed (they just sucked for 86 years), the rivalry between the two will enter another new phase. Now both teams are perennial World Series contenders they will battle each other and the Tampa Bay Rays for the division title. So a week from tomorrow, the war begins again and for the next six months these two teams will battle each other and the rest of the league for the chance of earning another trip to the World Series.
Let the games begin…sorta.
With the Olympics now over, it is time for baseball. Tomorrow, the real games will begin as Spring Training games get underway in the Grapefruit League. For those that breathe, eat, sleep baseball, Spring Training games are very important. It gives us baseball fans the ability to analyse players and teams as they get ready for Opening Day.
Jose Reyes…
There is some good news for Mets fans, Jose Reyes looked healthy rounding the bases in today’s intersquad game, in which he had a triple. Looking at the tape of today’s game, it seemed that Reyes was a little slow coming out of the batter’s box, but as he rounded first he no doubt turned on the jets and made it safely to third. The importance of Jose Reyes to the Mets can’t be underestated. When Reyes went down with his injury, it was as if he dragged the rest of the team down. Since May 21st, the Mets played inconsistent baseball trading first place with the Phillies in a 2 week span. With the Mets still neck and neck with the Phillies, their offense without Reyes was beginning to falter and then Carlos Beltran was lost for most of the season with a knee injury. After June 21st, a month after Reyes went down, the were 3 games behind the Phillies, and less than a two weeks later would be 6.5 games behind the Phillies. And the rest of the season is as they say, history. The point of that is that with Reyes in the lineup, the Mets offense scores; without Reyes this lineup is weaker. So today’s encouraging sight of Jose Reyes rounding the bases is welcome news to the Mets and their fans.
As for the Yankees….
The Yankees will begin their tune up for opening day this week, and for some of the players, this week and the entire month of March is very important. This month will help answer several questions. Can Brett Gardner be an everyday player? Will Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes be the team’s 5th starter? Will Joba end up in the bullpen? The answers to those questions will begin to be answered this week, as the Yankees open up their Grapefruit schedule against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Yankees take Game 3!
In my humble opinion the main story of this game is Andy Pettitte’s performance. There is a reason why he has the most wins in the post season and you saw it tonight. After giving up three runs in the 2nd inning, Pettitte put that rocky inning behind him settled down and pitch a good game the rest of the way. The only mistake he made after the 2nd inning was that moonshot by Werth that hit the second deck. What is more impressive by Pettitte’s performance was how he handled the tough lefty hitters in the Phillies lineup. The lefties for the Phillies went a combined 0-8 tonight. Just think about that, the Yankees are down by 3 runs, their offense is sleeping and Pettitte finds a way to hold the big hitters in the Phillies lineup hitless tonight. That is why the Yankees won this game. You can hit homeruns, doubles, triples and score a lot of runs but in the end the thing that wins games in the post season is smart pitching,and Pettitte was smart tonight.
The other story of the game was Nick Swisher. So far this post-season he has been absolutely dreadful, but all it took tonight was one at bat by Swisher to get his confidence up. His double off Hamels started the 3 run rally that gave the Yankees the lead for good. More importantly, Swisher gave stretched the Yankees lead with his solo homerun in the top of the 6th. What Swisher needs to do the rest of the series is build on those two at bats.
Thumbs up to……
Andy Pettitte. He battled all night and was close to the breaking point but never broke. Andy Pettitte didn’t have great stuff tonight but he found a way to out pitch Cole Hamels and that is what great post season pitchers do, and Pettitte is certainly that.
Nick Swisher. Picked a good time in the game to get a key base hit. His double in the 5th inning sparked a 3 run rally that won the game for the Yankees. His homerun in the 6th inning gave the Yankees an insurance run they would add to during the rest of the game. As I wrote above, all Swisher needs is to build on this at bats and end his slump. He is a big part of this team and the Yankees win when he is hitting.
Jayson Werth. Boy can this guy hit. When Werth hit his second homerun of the game the only words that came out of my mouth were, ‘what was the meal on that flight.’ It was just a few years ago that the Dodgers gave up on him which makes a person ask, what the hell were the Dodgers thinking? Either way, it looks like Werth will be a problem for the Yankees to figure out the rest of this series if they want to win and that is not good news. The Phillies lineup is loaded with potential headaches.
Alex Rodriguez. All I have to say is, what a great way to get his first career World Series hit.
Thumbs down to….
Cole Hamels. I just don’t understand why he gets rattled after giving up 2 runs to Alex Rodriguez. For some odd reason he is not the same pitcher he was last year.
Yankees Situational hitting. Yes they got 8 runs, but how many solo homeruns can this team hit and expect to win the game? They just have to do better.
Phil Hughes. Giving up a bad homerun to the 8th place hitter after striking out the lead off man in the 9th is not what a smart pitcher does. Hughes is a smart pitcher, has been a smart pitcher, but he has lost his head during the playoffs.
What do I expect tomorrow.
I expect CC Sabathia to step up and show the baseball world why he is the Yankees ace. I also expect him to give the bullpen a much needed rest, especially a rest for Mariano River whose arm is about to fall off if the Yankee bullpen doesn’t step up in the late innings.
Sabathia struggles.
Once again Sabathia has found himself in the short end of a decent, sometimes rocky, start. Now 1-3 in the year, with an ERA of 4.89. However, I’m not troubled by Sabathia’s struggles, remember, last year he started 0-3, with an ERA of 8 or 9, before being traded to Milwaukee. After the trade, Sabathia dominated the the NL. Could this happen again this year. My firm believe is that it can. Yankee bats are starting to wake up, and the team is starting to score more runs. Once A-Rod gets back into the lineup, I see this team firing on all cylinders. One of the disappointing things about today’s loss has been the struggles of Teixeira as well. Even though he worked out a walk (which he is very good at doing), he went hitless again. Like Sabathia, Teixeira is also a slow starter, and hopefully he can get going again, once A-Rod comes back.
Cano’s hit streak ends….
Robinson Cano’s 18 game hit streak has come to an end. Today he went 0 for 4.
Phil Hughes…
Phil Hughes can do himself a big favor tomorrow by going out and pitching the way he did on Tuesday. A spot in the rotation opened thanks to Wang’s struggles, Hughes should therefore make his case as to why he needs to stay with the big club. Last Tuesday, Hughes made a strong case, but it isn’t enough, he has to make his case even stronger by going out and pitching well against a much better Angels team. If Hughes pitches well, the Yankees need to recognize that there has to be a spot for him on the rotation. To assume that Wang could comeback and pitch at the level he pitched the last two seasons, is in my humble opinion, asking for too much. If Hughes gets the job done, the Yankees should consider the possibility of putting Wang on the bullpen, or better yet, keeping him in the minors. Just an idea, but it is a plausible one.
David Veloz
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