Also, agree with Cliff that I would have stuck with Big Shoes Hughes until another Philly reached based. Hopefully he understands it’s nothing personal going to Mo in that situation. It’s business. I’m confident he has the confidence to bounce back. Mo will talk to him about that.
Is Hughes gassed? I dunno. I suspect not. Big strong kid like that, who’s had plenty of rest — I think he’s just making mistakes and good hitters are making him pay for them. Growing pains. Fortunately, we have baseball’s greatest insurance plan backing him up.

Lotta baseball to go, and how fortunate are we to get a Sabathia start on a Sunday night in November. Our baseball blessings abound.

Oh, and ARod has been a joy to behold. Couldn’t be more proud of him. I’m almost overcome with pride watching him carry the team this way.

We only have to win two more games and we have CC for two of them, so we’re not absolutely dependent on what Phil can give us from here on out. We can afford to not have to rely on him from here on out.

I’m glad Girardi didn’t play games.

Blown Call: Well, maybe. Rodriguez’s long fly in the fourth inning certainly did hit a television camera, and that camera certainly was above the right-field fence. But if the baseball hadn’t hit the camera, would it really have cleared the fence? Perhaps. But it might also have hit the very top of the fence and bounced back into play, presumably limiting Rodriguez to a double. But upon review, the umpires awarded A-Rod a two-run home run.

…Update: According to this the umpires decided before the game that a batted ball hitting the camera above the right-field fence would automatically be a home run. Funny, I didn’t know that umpires have the power to establish their own ground rules.

I love that some writers can never admit they were wrong; instead opting to pass the buck onto the object of their conjecture, but I decided to respond more to a simple, but surely wide-shared question about the FOX camera’s positioning and subsequent role in the “controversy”… fortunately, I’m not an E@#$.com member, so I’ll post my intended comment here on the off-chance that it reaches the masses there…

“As someone who works with cameras, I can tell you without a doubt that the difference between the camera hanging over the wall and being set back several feet behind is certainly noticeable by itself; depth of field, which is the measure of length of subject from the lens and determining what’s in focus in between would be affected depending on what type of shot you are trying to achieve. That this is shot multi-camera somewhat diminishes the visual impact of that one angle, but because it became the focus of a larger issue, it’s positioning gained more attention than it perhaps deserved.

A true knee-jerk reaction would be to automatically ban cameras from hanging over like that before considering the likelihood of batted balls hitting that exact spot multiple times. In any regard, I doubt the umpires would have the power to move the cameras back; considering the partnership the network has with MLB in any regard.”

I agree that it really looks as if Hughes may just be gassed. I am never sure what ‘tired arm’ means and it seems to mean different things to different pitching coaches, but I’d say Hughes is tired. I’m also it hat tip mode to Marte, who may have his mojo back just in time to pick up that slack. We might see him against righties again tonight/tomorrow. And while the hat is tipping, Joe G gets one, too, I think. I hope the Banter did that last night. (Though love the ‘Mo for 5 innings’ line William!)

CC for 3-1!

For what it’s worth, as @leokitty has pointed out on twitter, Hughes may just be gassed. He’s not been healthy for a full season since 2006.

As for [16], I’m not sure how much detail the umpires usually go into on ground rules before each game. Manuel probably should have known because he’s managed hundreds of games in this ballpark. Girardi would only have known from a pre-game briefing, but just because the managers aren’t apprised of a certain ground rule doesn’t make the rule invalid, and it didn’t effect the way the players reacted to the play on the field. They played it like a double and the ruling was home run. No harm done.

[20] it sucks that he gave up the hr because it would be great to have let him finish the game, and i think it was the right call to go straight to mo (if i were a phillies fan, i’d be hoping that phil stays in longer there), but at least he was throwing strikes. he looked ok to me, i just hope he isn’t rattled.

AND, I’m not so sure that Phil can’t right the ship anyway.