Joba-Phil Round 2 Review

Yesterday should have been the day that Joba and Phil stepped up and took charge of the race for the 5 spot. But Joba's putrid performance combined with the previously-mentioned success of Sergio Mitre and Ace makes talking about the Joba-Phil competition useless, so I'll just keep it quick.

Joba looked solid through his first 2 innings and then the wheels completely came off in the 3rd. A barrage of singles and walks culminated in a Gerald Laird grand slam that chased Joba from the game with a final line of 2.1 IP, 5 H, 3 BB, 6 ER, 1 K. After the game the excuses started flying, with mention of everything from Joba getting tired to Joba still not being fully recovered from the flu to Joba having small mechanical problems. Whether or not any of that influenced his 3rd inning meltdown, the fact is Joba once again lost his touch in an inning and showed no ability to battle his way out of trouble by being aggressive with hitters and making good pitches, something that has plagued him since his first Major League start.

Hughes relieved Joba in the 3rd and after giving up a rocket home run to Ryan Raburn and a shot to deep center that was erased by a fantastic Curtis Granderson catch, he settled down to pitch 2 2/3 decent innings. His fastball command wasn't perfect but it was better than his first outing and Hughes showed continued improvement on his off-speed stuff, particularly the new changeup (which he tried to throw twice in a row for strikes and missed, causing him to fall behind 3-1 in the at-bat against Raburn).

It was another decisive 10-9 round for Hughes in the fight against Joba and the grand slam to Laird was the equivalent of Joba getting staggered with a 1-2 combo, but with the continuing solid performances of the other 5-spot candidates, this mano-y-mano battle now has to be considered a no-holds-barred battle royale. And don't be shocked to see Chad Gaudin cracking dudes with a steel chair to keep himself in the mix.