"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Deep Sixed

You can see why people are so high on Phil Hughes. He has a nice fastball–imagine that, a Yankee starter with the ability to throw a fastball past a hitter?!–a good curve and is unafraid to throw a change-up too (at one point early in the game he threw three straight change-ups). He fell behind too many hitters, and Alex Rios and Vernon Wells hit the ball hard off him in the first inning (Frank Thomas also connected for an RBI single; Hughes made a good pitch against him, fastball on the outside corner, but The Big Hurt showed why he’s a Hall of Fame hitter by slapping it into right). Hughes was just adequate last night, giving up four runs in less than five innings, but he’s certainly more promising than the likes of Kei Igawa, the Bombers’ new mop-up man in the bullpen.

“I certainly wasn’t disappointed,” Torre said. “I didn’t think he was out of his league, by any stretch of the imagination.”

…”The big thing I saw was even when he was down, he kept coming,” catcher Jorge Posada said. “That’s the sign of a good pitcher. I was really happy.”
(Tyler Kepner, N.Y. Times)

Unfortunately for the Yanks, Toronto’s answer to Nuke Laloosh, A.J. Burnett, was in fine form, pitching seven shut-out innings. The Bombers managed only four hits all night and lost their sixth straight game. Final score: Jays 6, Yanks 0.

How could Yankee fans be anything but glum watching the game last night? Oy and veh. The most exciting moment offensively came when Alex Rodriguez hit a ball to the warning track in dead center. It sounded great but came up just short. I did notice late in the game, both Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez smiling, so it doesn’t appear as if the players are too tight yet. After the game, however, Damon told reporters:

“There’s going to be panic soon, if the winning doesn’t start,” Johnny Damon said, although he quickly backtracked after realizing how that honesty came across. “We’re not panicking, but we need to get on track soon. It doesn’t matter who we get back on track with, we just need to start winning games sometime.”
(Peter Botte, N.Y. Daily News)

I think the Yanks will turn it around shortly. Surely, it can’t get much worse, can it? I’m more frustrated than panicked. It is dark and rainy in New York this morning with thundershowers in the forecast for much of the day. It is also supposed to rain tomorrow. I wonder how many games the Yanks and Sox will get in?

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver