Phil Hughes Pitches A Shutout!

Well, a 6-inning shutout anyway.  But that's a pretty damn good result for a guy who was maybe on his way out of the rotation if he bombed tonight.

In all seriousness, Hughes was damn good tonight.  He only needed 65 pitches to navigate through his 6 rain-shortened innings of work and was very effective.  He threw a lot of strikes (48 out of 65), got ahead in the count (15 out of 20 batters faced got 1st-pitch strikes), and he even got 7 swings and misses.  His stuff was better, his command was better, he was better.  For one night, at least, Phil made the Yanks look smart for not making moves at the deadline and holding onto their solid 6-man rotation.

(He's back!  At least for one night.  Fuck it, I just wanted to use this Photoshop again.)