Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Suprising No One, Hughes Bombs

Phil Hughes took the mound again last night against the Boston Red Sox and quickly reverted to 2008 form. Namely, he couldn't even get past the fourth inning. Hughes was either trying to paint the corners all night, or else just had no control over his pitches. The umpire had a narrow strike zone and made some erratic calls, but Phil was all over the place.

In his first outing this year, Hughes challenged batters right away, and had a small degree of luck on his side. This time, lady luck was nowhere to be seen and neither was Hughes' control.

Temporary roster addition Alfredo Aceves had a bit more success and managed to eat up a few more innings. It wasn't spectacular, but it got the job done. I'm sure Girardi will send Aceves back down soon but to anyone with a modicum of common sense, this team needs a long reliever.

Lester managed the bizzarre strike zone a bit better and took advantage, shutting down the Yankees when he needed a big out. Yankee hitters had limited success but they were haunted by a complete inability to hit with RISP.

Meanwhile, controversey was brewing outside the stadium. Several Yankee employees told fans the game had been rained out and was cancelled but come time for the first pitch, no one was allowed to get back in to watch the game. The Yankees have a strict no re-entry policy but the disaster created by employees incorrectly telling people the game was cancelled will go down as yet another PR disaster for the team that absolutely, positively doesn't give a hoot about it's fans.

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