Well, this is a big deal for Hughes and the Yankees. The Yankees need Hughes to be at least serviceable this year in order to slot him in next year's rotation, and Hughes needs to be at least serviceable in order to give the Yankees reason to trust him with a rotation spot.
So far, so good. Hughes' fastball is sitting 92-94, and he's spotting it well. His curveball has bite, and he's sprinkling in his cutter. We have yet to see his much-talked-about changeup, but with the stuff he's showing so far, he won't need it.
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Young-uns doing well today – Cano hits a laser out to RF.
Thames thought it was a homerun – to be fair, I think most everyone did – so he went into a homerun trot before seeing it bounce off the wall. Thankfully he got into second safely.
Hughes kind of slowing down on his second turn through the lineup.
Big out for Hughes. Let’s see how he does next inning for the other batters seeing him for the second time.
Balls have been rocketing off the bat against Kazmir. I predict he won’t be long for this game.
Granderson throws a one-bouncer to Posada to gun down Matsui at home. Gosh, it’s nice to have an actual acceptable arm in CF. Melky had a gun, but he never knew where it was going.
Granderson triples off a left-handed pitcher! If he can simply be adequate against LHP, Granderson is one of the more complete players in baseball.
Looks like Hughes is going to only go his usual 5 innings tonight. Just too many pitches after the first two innings. But he’s shown good stuff and struck out 6 batters, so I remain optimistic.
Cano is just awesome. He’s been better vs. LHP than RHP for the past three seaons, which is cool.
And Granderson triples yet again! This time off a RHP.
They let Hughes start the 6th…not sure I agree with that. This puts him over 100 pitches. Let him have this solid start to build off of. You don’t want him giving up a jack.
Well, I’m out. Go Yankees!
Thanks for the gamer and for keeping the commentary Andrew – I’ll pick it up from here!
Cano is indeed looking superb this season. Everything he hits seems to be crushed. Hughes was OK. Ballooned his pitch count in the 3rd inning and that hurt him. Barely more than 5 IP is not a good start by virtually any measure, but 2 runs over that stretch is OK.
Marte in now to try to stem an Angels come-back rally. And he Ks Abreu – great job. 10Ks by the Yanks arms in the game so far.
I’ll have to remember to post something on how the much-maligned-against-LHP Curtis Granderson is doing so far in this young season. In 12 AB vs. southpaws he’s hitting .333 with 3 singles, a triple and a few RBI. It’s early of course, but when you combine his hitting (including ample evidence of power already), his speed on the pads, his range in the field, his arm, and the ease with which he seems to have acclimated to the Yankee clubhouse, he hasn’t given YFs even a moment of nostalgia for Johnny Damon.
Yanks go quietly in that inning. And we go to the 8th with Marte coming out again – facing Torii Hunter. Very good night for Robertson rebounding from getting shelled in his last outing.
And Joba-licious is warming.
Hunter singles off of Jeter’s glove – and Matsui’s up with 0 outs. Yanks still up 6-2.
Hughes with good results, though the 5 walks is alarming, especially losing a few hitters up in the count. Something to build on.
Granderson is running crazy on the base paths. Man, it’s still hard to believe it’s a different era (ish?) with Matsui and JD gone, easily two top/mid lineup guys.
Hey Lar.
And Matsui’s bloops his way on. Two on, no outs and Kendry Morales up. Quicken the warm-up pace Joba…
one out – men on 1st and 3rd after the ground out to Cano. And here comes Joba.
Joba induces the comebacker DP – love it.
This is one very long game. Feels like a Yanks-Sox game.
Are you following this game on WCBS radio Lar? I swear Suzyn Waldman sounds drunk tonight. And I don’t mean that sarcastically or figuratively.
Long fly out for Swish – Teix up. In April. Sigh.
Sleep-inducing pace continues. My inner Joe West is rising.
Teix Ks. 1-2-3 inning for Yanks. On to the 9th.
Joba walks Napoli because no one has anywhere to be tonight.
K # 11 for Yank pitchers tonight.
Flyout to Granderson. 2 out. Sinatra moments away…Joba to Aybar…
I cannot believe he is going to Mo???
Jeter muffs it. Lord. We have to use Mo?!?! You’ve got to be kidding me. Annoying. Annoying as hell. Let’s go Mo – 1-out save.
Yankees win. Sabres win. Great night. krueg rejoices.
Mo gets Abreu to ground out to Cano. Goodbye Angels. Enjoy that mid-April record. Yanks with 3 series wins against three serious contenders. Nice.
Congrats Krueg. Goodnight. Going to my first game of the season tomorrow – CC time!
We are going out with friends to watch it so here’s to a great game by CC for both of our sakes!!!
Small sample size, yada yada, but their expected win is now at 98.6! The plus is that it’s against 3 great teams — Angels, Boston, and Tampa. Though the Angels are 3-7, so maybe not quite yet.
Still, without Tex hitting and ARod just middling, it’s great to see others pick up the slack for now. Except for Vazquez.
Nevermind, plugged it in wrong, haha.. still though, go Yanks!
well, this is unusual. the yanks are playing like champs in april. makes me a little uneasy, but i’ll take it.
to borrow a joke from a friend: hideki matsui was clearly a distraction to cano last seasons and the seasons before. cano will now be able to reach his insane potential.
things are looking good in yankee universe right now.
Hey IH, missed your messages, was at a bar on the phone, just chirping in. =)
He actually said something like that, now that Melky is gone, he should take more the mold of Jeter, Teixiera, ARod, and be more serious about the game.
I wasn’t too crazy about Hughes’s start yesterday. Velocity after the second inning was sitting at 91 mostly and he was nibbling instead of going after guys (hence the 5 BBs). He got by, and did strike out 5, which was good, but it wasn’t really inspiring. Also, his mechanics looked off – he wasn’t “finishing” a lot of his pitches, which resulted in many of his fastballs ending up off the plate to the (his) right – and that might also account for diminished velo. His breaking stuff did look very good though.
Not gonna kill him too much, this being his first start and not having thrown in two weeks. But hopefully he’ll continue to build up arm strength (and correct his mechanics) and get more aggressive.