(Who are you and what have you done with Phil Hughes?? Courtesy of The AP)
Being on the losing end of a walk-off win sucks. It sucks even more when it happens on a game-winning sacrifice fly. That's exactly how the Yankees lost on Saturday to even up this series in Detroit, and it put a major damper on their chances to get out with a series win considering yesterday's pitching matchup was Phil Hughes vs. Justin Verlander. Now the Yankees have hit Verlander before, but with Hughes been so hot-and-cold this season, it's almost impossible to predict what kind of outing he would give in comparison. As luck would have it, yesterday was a Good Phil outing, and not just a regular one but possibly the best Phil outing we've ever seen.
Game Notes:
- The Yankees didn't waste any time jumping on Verlander, as Derek Jeter hit the first pitch he saw, a changeup that was up in the zone, for a leadoff HR and a 1-0 lead. They followed it up with a pair of walks, a passed ball by Omir Santos, and a sac fly from Mark Teixeira to make it 2-0.
- Verlander wasn't sharp early, and it showed. His trademark electric stuff was there, but he couldn't establish consistent command of any of his pitches and his pitch count quickly increased. He made a rookie mistake to Alex Rodriguez in the top of the 3rd, throwing him 5 straight fastballs. The Horse turned the 5th one (a 3-1 pitch) into a souvenir and it was 3-0 Yanks.
- In direct contrast to Verlander, Hughes had much better fastball command than he usually displays. He worked both sides of the plate well with it, generally worked from ahead in the count, and kept the Detroit hitters off balance.
- After working through 3 scoreless frames, allowing a hit and 2 walks, Hughes made his first and only mistake of the day in the bottom of the 4th when he hung a first-pitch curveball to Prince Fielder. The Tigers were on the board, but Hughes was money from then on.
- The Yankee offense quickly got that run back in the 5th on a double by Curtis Granderson and a 2-out RBI triple by Robinson Cano, who scored on a throwing error to make it 5-1. Yay for hits with RISP!
- After giving up a run on 2 hits and 3 walks through 5, Hughes really hit his stride in the final 4 innings. He gave up only 2 more hits, didn't walk a batter, and struck out 5 of his 8 total on the day.
- It was truly an outstanding performance for Hughes. His fastball command was excellent and his curveball was working well as a swing-and-miss out pitch. He definitely proved to Joe that he was worthy of finishing this game off, and he did it on 123 pitches for his first career 9-inning complete game.
F*ck Yeahs:
- Hughes: 9 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W. This was the perfect bounce-back game for Hughes after his stinker in Anaheim earlier in the week. He mixed his pitches well, pitched aggressively (especially against the big boppers), and looked like the kind of top-flight pitcher the Yankees have been waiting for him to become for years now. He also got more groundball outs than flyball outs, which is not the norm with Phil. Hopefully this continues moving forward.
- Jeter: 2-5, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 3 LOB. Got the offense started off on the right foot against Verlander, who wasn't on his A-game yesterday.
- A-Rod: 2-4, 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 LOB. Looked like he had some strength in his lower half on that HR swing.
Oh Nos:
- RISP Fail: 1-11 as a team and 7 team LOB, mainly from the bottom of the order. The offense work 13 combined hits and walks off of Verlander and should have had more to show for it. Sooner or later, they need to start stringing some hits together when they have guys on base.
Next Up:
Off day today so the team can travel back home after a successful 6-3 road trip. All the wrinkles still aren't ironed out, but they are starting to play better ball and their timing couldn't be better, as they've worked right back up to the doorstep of the division lead. A 3-game series against the Rays at home kicks off on Tuesday.
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