Game 33 Wrap-Up: NYY 6 SEA 2

(Look at that.  A standing O.  Courtesy of The AP)

Phil Hughes has been trending up lately, and his teammates have been doing the same over the past 5 days.  The Yankees were fresh off of beating Felix Hernandez on Friday and facing a pitcher whom the have some familiarity with in former teammate Hector Noesi.  The struggles of April were starting to fade in the rearview mirror and the Yanks were looking to keep it that way yesterday.

Game Notes:

- It looked like we were being set up for a pitchers' duel as both guys worked through the majority of the first 2 innings unscathed.  But with 2 outs in the bottom of the 2nd, the Yankee offense strung together a trio of big hits (RBI doubles by Ibanez and Martin, and a 2-R HR by Jayson Nix) to stake Hughes to a 4-0 lead.

- For the 3rd straight game, Hughes seemed to use the "reliever mentality" he talked about to his advantage.  He threw a lot of strikes, worked from ahead in the count more often than not, and did a much better job of putting hitters away with 2 strikes.  Through 6 innings, the Mariners had just 3 hits and 1 walk to their credit.

- Raul Ibanez has been on a mini-tear this week and he continued that in the 4th with his 7th HR of the season.  He now has 7 on the season, 2 in consecutive games, and 4 in his last 5.

- Hughes did give up a home run to Mike Carp in the 7th for his only run of the day, a byproduct of being a flyball pitcher, but for the most part Hughes was outstanding yesterday.  He used his changeup a lot more than he had recently, and many of the flyballs he got were easy outs.

- The most important thing was that Hughes seemed to mix all his pitches better, which made him more effective with 2 strikes.  Rather than try to throw the ball by everybody, he was very willing to let the Mariner offense make contact and trust his defense behind him.  He only recorded 4 Ks yesterday, but he also only walked 1 batter.

- Hughes tired in the 8th, not a big surprise considering he was at 112 pitches, and Boone Logan came on to strike out Ichiro to end the inning.

- Robinson Cano kept his hitting streak alive with an RBI single for some insurance in the bottom of the 8th, and it was up to Logan to close the game out, which he did with 3 more strikeouts.  He did give up a run, but it was another stellar performance from Logan.

- Interesting note- Logan was the 3rd different Yankee reliever to record a save since Mo's injury.


F*ck Yeahs:

- Hughes: 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W.  He'd been a little better each of his last couple times out, and he was better than those times today.  When Hughes is on, he's getting a lot of easy flyball outs and that's what he did today.  This is the Hughes we expected to see after his strong ST.

- Ibanez: 2-3, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.  Offensively, this has been Ibanez's series.  He's still a disaster in the field, but he's been everything the Yankees wanted him to be offensively and early on has helped to ease the sting of the loss of Montero.

- Nix: 1-3, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI.  Congrats to Nix for his first HR of the year, and kudos to Joe for keeping him around instead of Nunez.

Oh Nos:

- Curtis Granderson: 0-4, 2 K, 2 LOB.  Not a big deal.  He's been solid lately, so I can live with an off day.

- Alex Rodriguez: 0-4, 2 K, 2 LOB.  See above description.

Next Up:

I doubt anybody has heard anything about this, as it's been kept relatively under wraps, but Andy Pettitte is making his return to the Yankee rotation today.  It's probably not fair to have the highest expectations of him (I'd be happy with 5-6 innings of 3-run ball), but it is cool to be able to say he's a part of the Yankee rotation again, and it's even cooler that he makes his return with a chance to lock up a series sweep this afternoon.