Friday, April 4, 2008
Hughes The Man
There was plenty of reason to be happy about the Yankees’ 3-2 victory over Toronto last night, but the biggest reason was a very strong outing by Phil Hughes. Hughes was perfect until the fourth, when the incomparable David Eckstein led off with a double. We get it, he’s scrappy. Enough. Hughes showed me something this inning by striking out Vernon Wells and Frank Thomas with Alex Rios sitting on third after a stolen base and an error with one out.
Hughes gave up another run in the fifth but was great in the sixth, when he was pulled after 87 pitches, 58 of which were strikes. Hughes probably had another inning in him, but if he’s on an innings limit this year, expect this to be the norm. Hughes’s velocity wasn’t particularly impressive, as his fastball sat around 91 most of the game, but it seems that he has something deceptive in his delivery that makes him hard to hit so I’m not overly worried about that.
Billy Traber made his Yankee debut and fanned Lyle Overbay before giving away to the freshly-mulleted Brian Bruney. Bruney got the last two outs in the seventh then handed off to Joba Chamberlain who pitched a scoreless eighth. Mo pitched around a leadoff single in the ninth to nail it down. Of note was a play by Derek Jeter with one out and with Wells on second, where Jeter got to a sharply hit ball by Overbay up the middle for the second out. I don’t think Jeter would have made that play last year, although it looked like he was shading up the middle slightly.
On the offensive side, not a whole hell of a lot happened. Dustin McGowan was tough, throwing mid 90s gas with a tough breaking pitch and holding the Yankees scoreless over the first five innings. McGowan tired in the sixth and the Yankees scored on a wild pitch and a sac fly. Bobby Abreu blooped in the go-ahead and eventual winning run in the 8th and that was that.
Toronto’s front three starters are as good as anyone in baseball’s so I’m not worried about the lack of offense in this series. The Yanks took two of three and played pretty well all around. Next up are the new and improved Rays.
Update: Enjoy this while it lasts.
| Player | TM | LG | Pos | INN | Ch | PM | ZR | Avg ZR | AvgPM | Diff | RS | RS/162 |
| Jeter, Derek | NYY | AL | SS | 27 | 11 | 10 | .909 | .832 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 34 |
Ch: Playable Chances
PM: Plays Made
ZR: Zone Rating (PM/Ch)
Avg ZR: Average Zone Rating for league/position
Avg PM: Avg ZR times Ch
Diff: Difference between PM and AvgPM
RS: Runs Saved
RS/162: Runs Saved pro-rated to 162 games
Update Part Deux: Jonathan noticed that we got a plug from Kat O'Brien at Newsday.com.
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