After dropping the first two games of the season to the division rival Rays, the Yankees entered today’s game looking to avoid a sweep. To stave off humiliation, the Yankees turned to the new and hopefully improved , who took on Tampa’s youngster . It was the first start of what will be a very important season for Hughes, and this was his first opportunity to flash his improved changeup. Much of the pre-game discussion centered around the Rays’ extensive use of infield shifts to stymie Yankee batters, spawning many stupid puns on twitter and plenty of praise for Joe Maddon’s hipster-esque disregard of conventional baseball strategy.
The Yankee lineup featured several changes from the first two games, including the deployment of slow-footed in right field (perhaps ‘s groin was bothering him) and Chris Stewart behind the plate. Several of Joe Girardi’s decisions from the last two games have been called into question and at times ridiculed, and playing Ibanez (he of the -21.8 UZR last year) in the outfield invited further scrutiny.
Things got off to a rocky start for Girardi and the Yankees in the bottom of the 1st. After retiring the 1st 2 batters, Hughes gave up a double to , who has come out of the gates on fire. Hughes looked to be out of trouble when Matt Joyce hit a broken-bat blooper to right, but Ibanez got a late break and was unable to make a sliding catch. Instead, the ball went by him, and if not for backup by Granderson, Joyce could have ended up with an inside-the-park home run.
There is not much doubt in my mind that a healthy makes the catch on that play, and Ibanez’s miscue confirmed doubts about Ibanez’s ability to play the outfield. Fortunately for the Yankees, was able to retire to limit the damage, but the Yankees were once again trailing in the beginning of the game.
Hughes and Hellickson both held the opposition scoreless in the 2nd, until the Rays got to Hughes once again in the 3rd. This time it was Carlos Pena, who was a thorn in the Yankees’ side the entire series. Hughes got ahead in the count 0-2, but was unable to put Pena away (sound familiar?), and Pena made him pay by stroking a solo shot to right field.
The Yankees looked like they were in position to strike back when drew a walk with 1 out in the 4th. followed, crushing a double to right that just missed being a home run (and quite possibly would have been in the Bronx), advancing Rodriguez to 3rd. Nick Swisher got ahead in the count but was unable to make Hellickson pay, popping up a very hittable 89 MPH fastball to 3rd. Ibanez, hoping to redeem himself for his 1st-inning misplay, hit a deep fly to center that the speedy ran down, and once again the Yankees came up empty with runners in scoring position.
Hughes worked himself into a bit of a jam in the 5th, and once again Carlos Pena was responsible. With 2 outs and on an 0-2 count, Pena crushed a hanging changeup deep to right that initially looked like a home run, but was ruled a ground-rule double because a fan reached over the fence. Hughes walked the dangerous Longoria, bringing up Matt Joyce with a chance to break the game open. Hughes’ high pitch count for the game (nearing 100) and Joyce’s sharp platoon splits prompted Girardi to call for reinforcements, summoning Twitter fan favorite to extricate the Yankees from this sticky situation. Logan delivered, fanning Joyce on 4 straight sliders, and keeping it a 2-run game.
The Yankees mounted another rally in the 6th, as A-Rod hit a 2-out double and Teixeira walked. However, Swisher once again came up short in a key situation, striking out on 4 Hellickson fastballs. went back to work in the 6th, retiring the 1st two batters before surrendering a solo shot to . While Logan historically has been much more hittable against righties, he looked to be cruising, and I understand Girardi’s decision to leave him in to face Keppinger (not normally considered a power threat). Keppinger’s homer increased Tampa’s lead to 3, which loomed large given the Yankees’ failure to come through with runners in scoring position.
Hellickson continued to cruise, and the Yankees could not mount much in the way of a rally in the 7th and the 8th. retired the Rays in the 7th, before getting into trouble in the 8th, and was relieved by and later David Phelps. Phelps, making his major league debut, recorded his first career strikeout and induced a groundout to keep the deficit at 3.
The 9th offered the Yanks their final opportunity to get on the scoreboard. Hellickson retired Rodriguez on a flyout and Teixeira on a groundout before walking Swisher. Rather than giving Hellickson another opportunity to complete the game, Joe Maddon turned to his closer, , to earn a 1-out save. Rodney succeeded in his attempt, as Ibanez grounded out, giving the Rays a 3-game series sweep.
In what was a lackluster performance by the Yankees, there were not many bright spots. Phil Hughes put together an encouraging outing, albeit one ended prematurely due to pitch counts and inefficiency. Overall, Hughes pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, while fanning 5.
Hughes was consistently in the low-90′s with his fastball, getting as high as 94. However, he didn’t have great command of the pitch, often missing the target by significant margins. Despite the shaky command, he was able to blow high fastballs by a number of Tampa hitters. Hughes’ changeup was featured prominently in the early going, and the pitch showed some nice fade. Hughes was confident enough to use the pitch in fastball counts several times, which was an encouraging sign. He also worked in his curveball later in the game, breaking off a few good ones but also a few flat, loopy ones.
Overall, it was a game where the Yankees had their chances to score, but weren’t able to get the big hit. They were able to make good contact, but the ball ended up going directly to the well-positioned Tampa infield. Ibanez’s fielding miscues and the 2 solo shots certainly didn’t help. To give credit where credit is due, Hellickson pitched a great game, mixing his pitches well and locating his fastball on the corners to stymie the Yankee hitters. Hopefully Ibanez’s right-field misadventures will remind Joe Girardi that Ibanez is a terrible outfielder, and shouldn’t be getting regular playing time at the position (I’m hoping he was only playing there because of Swisher’s groin). If this means calling up another outfielder like (since was lost on waivers to the Astros) or starting against a righty, so be it, but I really don’t want to see Ibanez out there on a regular basis.
After a rough 3 games in Tampa, the upcoming series against the Baltimore Orioles should be just what the doctor ordered. I will be in attendance for the first game tomorrow night (if anyone has food recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments), and hopefully the Yankees will look better than they have the past few days. will take the hill, looking to quiet concerns about his rough spring training and stop the Yankees’ slide. There are going to be people (and pot-stirring bloggers/journalists) already concerned about the state of the Yankees and questioning Joe Girardi’s managing, but the bottom line is there are still 159 games to go.
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Sorry folks, ran a little long here.
159 games to go, but now the Yanks have to play .667 ball to win the season series over the Rays and the division in the event they finish with the same record as the Rays. I just don’t see that happening with the Rays’ front three of Shields/Price/Hellickson which is superior to the Yanks’ front three and I think the best front three in the AL, second best in MLB after Hamels/Halladay/Lee. The Yanks will have to win the division outright / with more wins than the Rays to avoid starting CC in the wildcard game so they can advance to the ALDS.
Let’s see about the the front three being superior in about three month.
I would love to have Price, and give away Kuroda but I take CC and Hughes over Shields and Hellboy ever day.
What worried me was, that Hughes had trouble again putting hitters away. With a 0-2 count you don’t have to always throw a FB. I don’t get why he isn’t using his change in those situations.
And Eric, I got a little food recommendations for you: The french fries at Orioles Park are awesome. You can buy them with 10 (I think) different kind of sauces there. Best I had at a baseball game
Hughes has always had that problem, his fastball isn’t going to blow by guys unless he elevates it up above the zone, and he’s inconsistent with his curve in both strikeout location and sharpness. His change isn’t really a swing and miss pitch right now. He’s going to be using it more for pitching to contact for early outs and called strikes to get back into counts. It doesn’t seem to have a ton of movement and his location was pretty bad today, that pitch is going to have to come along way to become a consistent strikeout weapon. It honestly may never get to that point, though it doesn’t have to in order to get the desired results. For strikeouts he needs to improve his curve consistency. It’s a good enough pitch to generate swings and missess, he just leaves it up too much with 2 strikes when he should be burying it.
I agree with Sabathia over Shields obviously but I’d take Hellickson in a 1-1 swap with Hughes. Hughes has better pure stuff but Hellickson has a much better understanding of how to pitch, and his fastball location is more consistent to the spot.
I don’t see any contradiction in not getting too upset over losing the first three games and questioning Joe Girardi’s managing. After all, some of us have been (rightly) questioning Girardi’s managing all through his tenure, including the 2009 championship season.
The bottom line for me is that while Girardi has his strengths (managing bullpen work load, being conscious of resting his regulars, and probably other inside the clubhouse stuff that we’ll never know about) his tactical decision making, lineup choices (like Ibanez in RF yesterday and the punchless RH lineup he used to run out against LHP in seasons past) more often than not do not help the cause and often hurt it.
I’m enjoying a good chuckle this morning reading the justifications for leaving Logan in against Keppinger which are 180 degrees from the justifications some have given for the obvious over-managing blunder in the first inning on Friday. So, I guess CC needs Joe to help him out by matching him up but Boone Logan doesn’t. OK. Now I wasn’t really too upset about the Logan non-move given the state of the game but it was still a blunder since Wade was ready to go and it would have only been one more batter for him. What’s the difference between Logan getting four outs and Wade doing the same?
And am I the only one stumped by Girardi’s explanation that he can’t use Soriano, Robertson and Mo every day? Huh? He never uses those guys when he’s behind so how was that an issue? He had Phelps to back up Wade and since Phelps is the “long man” he could certainly throw a couple of innings. If the Yankees got back in the game then there would have been a justification for using Soriano, Robertson and Mo.
Yeah, a valid point on Logan. I guess my explanation would be that it was not a dangerous situation (2 outs and bases empty) when Logan was facing Keppinger, and Logan had already retired a better righty hitter in Ben Zobrist. But I agree that in general he shouldn’t be facing righties. The only move that I’m really upset about is Ibanez playing the field, and I’m hopeful that was a short-lived experiment.
Eric, Ibanez played left pretty well the other night, and may need a little time to feel comfy in right. Certainly, it wasn’t encouraging that he misread the soft liner, and, especially, not that he panicked to let it get by him, but I say give him the chance to prove himself incompetent.
UZR is unreliable, and seems largely to focus on range, which would be believable for Ibanez. Yet, when Swish has a borderline condition, and there is a tricky righty (tho I think Hellickson was almot equally tricky to righties and lefties), let Joe have some flexibility till Raul proves the negative. (Unless you have seen him personally screw the pooch sufficiently.)
btw, the same goes for Eduardo Nunez, and he gets a long leash for trade value’s sake, at least. The guy is high strung, and he must be hard to teach; but he’s got a cannon arm, he snags the ball, moves fast, and he can hit and steal.
He’s jumpy, the bad throws, which will cure with experience. He has trouble with situational awareness, leading to indecision, slowing his charge on a bouncer, even though the hitter is fast.
The botched rundown play Sunday, Repada picks off Jennings, now running for second, with Breignac doubtless jockeying off third. Nuney came inside the bag by five feet, to protect his ability and threat to throw home, yet he was out of position to tag the runner. If Nuney had stabbed at the runner, Breignac would run. Looked like everyone would be safe, but Breignac was hung out. Oh, the cries you woulda heard.
Anyway, either Mick Kelleher drills him hard, or we get to appreciate the smell of gunpowder acrimony. Derek and Alex should try to teach their sub, too. They are both excellent at that situational awareness stuff.