After winning 4 games in a row, including yesterday’s series opener, the Yankees looked to continue their winning ways against the Angels. took the hill for the Yankees, looking to improve on an inefficient outing in which he only lasted 4 2/3 innings. CJ Wilson was on the mound for the Angels, looking to justify the big contract that he earned in the offseason as a free agent, and keep the Yankees off-balance with his extensive repertoire.
Hughes got himself into a a little trouble in the top of the 1st, giving up consecutive one-out singles to Yankee-killer and . However, Hughes was able to wiggle out of this mini-jam, striking out and swinging to keep the game scoreless. Despite the two hits, Hughes’ stuff looked strong in the early going, as he was sitting in the 92-94 range with his fastball, and inducing some swings and misses with the pitch.
Wilson encountered a similar situation in the bottom of the 1st, as and singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. However, struck out looking and consecutive groundouts by and allowed Wilson to wriggle off the hook. This failure to convert with runners on would be a recurring theme for the Yankees today.
The Angels got to Hughes in the top of the 2nd. Hughes fanned on a changeup to lead off the inning, and then Vernon Well followed with a single to center. Chris Ianetta then lined a homer to right, a true Yankee Stadium special, that landed just over the wall and just inside the foul pole. Since we can’t regress this hit for luck or stadium (such is the life of a flyball pitcher in Yankee stadium), it still counted for 2 runs, and suddenly the Yankees were in a hole. Hughes rebounded to retire on a fly ball and strike out , but his pitch count continued to climb.
Phil got in trouble again in the top of the 3rd, as Howie Kendrick once again was a thorn in the Yankees’ side, lining a leadoff single to right. Hughes got ahead of Albert Pujols by freezing with 2 sharp curveballs, but Pujols showed why he is a future hall-of-famer by lining Hughes’ 3rd offering, a high fastball, to deep center for a double, scoring Kendrick. It wasn’t a bad pitch by Hughes by any stretch of the imagination, but it perhaps caught a little too much of the plate against a great hitter like Pujols. Hughes ended up pitching out of trouble, but once again the pitch count climbed, and began to get loose.
The Angels continued to get after Hughes in the 4th. Hughes walked Ianetta and fanned Bourjos, before surrendering an infield single to Aybar. Mark Teixeira couldn’t find the ball after blocking Aybar’s hard grounder, and Aybar beat Hughes’ flip to the bag to put 2 runners on with 1 out, and Kendrick and Pujols coming up. Kendrick once again hurt the Yankees by driving a 3-run shot to left. At that point, Joe Girardi had seen enough, and after 3 1/3 innings of 6-run ball, he went to the bullpen and summoned Phelps. Phelps retired Pujols and Morales to escape further trouble, but the damage had been done, and the Yankees were in a 6-0 hole.
The Yankees looked to be in a position to respond when a 1-out single by Teixeira and a walk to Granderson put 2 runners aboard for . However, Jones grounded out and flied out, stranding 2 more runners and keeping the Yankees scoreless.
Phelps gave up a solo home run to in the 5th to put the Angels ahead 7-0, but otherwise keps LA’s bats under control. The Yankees tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the 5th, scratching out a run on singles by Nunez, Jeter, and Cano. However, with 2 runners on, both Rodriguez and Teixeira failed to come through, stranding 2 more runners and letting Wilson escape further damage.
Phelps held the Angels in check for pretty much the rest of the game, pitching into the 9th and giving the Yankee bullpen some much needed rest. However, the Yankees weren’t able to mount any successful rallies. They had a few more opportunities with runners on base, but failed to get the big hit, and ended up losing 7-1.
It was a typical frustrating outing for Phil Hughes. He had good life on his fastball early, but the combination of inconsistent secondary offerings and sub-par command allowed the Angels to take advantage of him. Overall, Hughes lasted only 3 1/3 innings, giving up 6 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks. That Hughes was able to record 6 strikeouts speaks to his life on his fastball today, but ultimately, he wasn’t able to keep the Angels off the bases, and gave up a few untimely home runs. For those of us who were optimistic about Hughes after a strong spring, the early returns haven’t been incredibly encouraging, as he seems to be having the same problems (though the fastball velocity has been better). He really has struggled to establish a consistent secondary offering, the changeup and curve both shows signs of being usable pitches, but have been inconsistent. The cutter has looked pretty awful in its limited use, basically ending up as a slow fastball with insufficient bite. Overall, it was a disappointing effort, and one which I imagine we will analyze further in the next few days.
Phelps was definitely the player of the game for the Yankees, going 5 1/3 innings in relief while giving up just 1 hit (the homer to Wells) and 2 walks, with 4 strikeouts. He has looked very successful in the long relief/swingman role so far, replacing the departed quite capably. If Hughes continues to struggle and Phelps continues to pitch well, speculation will ensue about switching their roles (apparently Andrew Marchand is already starting to beat that drum).
The Yankee offense was fairly anemic today, mustering just 6 hits against the tricky Wilson and the Angels bullpen, and leaving 10 runners on base. Derek Jeter had 2 hits today to set the table, but the middle of the order, most notably Rodriguez and Teixeira, failed to get the big hits with runners on. They certainly had their chances to score against Wilson, who was pitching with runners on for much of the game, but ultimately, were unable to get the job done. Wilson deserves credit for this of course, but it was still frustrating to watch.
The Yankees will look to rebound tomorrow behind , who was very impressive in his last outing against Baltimore (which I got to see in person). Thanks to Phelps’ efforts, the Yankee bullpen should be well-rested for this contest, and hopefully we will see a better performance from the Yankee lineup.
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Hughes has good reason to look over his shoulder, but not because of Phelps — both Pettitte and Pineda will be ready in a month or so. I doubt very much the Yankees will make a change before then. They will give Hughes every chance to show he can (or can’t) do the job.
I completely agree. He should get at least a month to sort things out. If the impending returns Pineda and Pettitte aren’t sufficient motivation to help Phil get things together, then I’m not sure anything will work.
I wish Hughes would throw his curve and change more, the cutter i feel really screwed him today, he couldn’t command it at all and by the looks of things he had feel for the change (when thrown) and curveball.
I couldn’t watch the game today, it was no where to be found on TV here in Houston. My question is about Hughes’ velocity after the first, did it drop any after the first or second? Since coming off the DL last year, and again in his last start, he starts off well at 92-93 but then it starts to drop off into the 90-91 range in the second and beyond. Did he have the same problem today or was his velocity steady?
It may have dropped off slightly, but not substantially. He was 91-94 in the 1st (most were 92-93), 90-93 in the 2nd, 91-93 in the 3rd (mostly 92, but he wasn’t throwing as many fastballs), and 91-92 (mostly 91) in the 4th.
He seems to be losing his ability to dial it up to his peak velocity as the game goes on, that is concerning. It either means he has no idea how to pace himself, which at this point in his career shouldn’t be a problem, he simply loses arm strength as the game goes along which could also cause a loss in control and movement, or the more he throws the cutter the more he loses the feel on the difference between throwingh a cutter and 4 seamer. He may need to stop throwing the cutter altogether, I’ve seen several pitchers site throwing too many cutters as a direct link to losing some control and heat off the 4 seam. If he can’t find a way to be more consistent with his velocity one way or the other I think the pen is in his future. Max velocity isn’t the be all end all, but being consistent and being able to control velocity is very important for a starter.
Any loss of velocity as the game progresses will just be another nail in the coffin for him being sent to the bullpen.
The scenario I had hoped for had him putting up results, lucky or not, and raising his trade value. Failing that, he has to go to the bullpen. His stock plummets either way if you send him to AAA or the bullpen, so you might as well have him get outs up here. His lack of efficiency is very reminiscent of 09 with Joba, and that was a big factor in banishing him to the bullpen permanently. Phil’s on the same path. Failed starters wind up as relievers.
The Joba/Phil situations aren’t completely analogous, though.
I don’t see the lack of efficiency continuing. The issue is command, not stuff, and it’s something a lot of people deal with early in the year. His command was pretty good in ST.
One decent outing and one bad one has too many people are putting him in the BP.