Tonight could define Phil Hughes’ season
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Oct 11, 2012 
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Phil Hughes was in the bullpen for the 2009 postseason, and he was knocked around a little bit. He made terrific start in the 2010 division series, but followed that with two ugly losses in the 2010 ALCS. Last postseason, he was back in the pen and pitched 2.1 scoreless innings.
Consistency remains an uncertain buzzword for Hughes, but the Yankees are counting on the best of him tonight.
“Last year was a disappointing season,” Hughes said. “And the year before that, pitching a good game against Minnesota and not then pitching at all against Texas. I’ve been looking forward to this. … You don’t really want to linger on the negative, but every postseason start and things like that is an experience and something I can learn from. But it’s a different team, different lineup, and I think I kind of know what to expect going into this, and that’s something I can certainly learn from.”
This was a year of adjustments for Hughes. He had success with an aggressive bullpen approach out of the rotation. At times, he trusted his changeup a little bit more than in the past. Late in the year, he developed a slider-cutter hybrid that helped keep hitters off his go-to fastball.
In four starts against the Orioles, he was 2-2 with a 4.76 ERA. Fitting for a guy still searching for consistency, these were his individual game results against Baltimore:
May 1: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
August 1: 6 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
Sept. 2: 5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Sept. 7: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
That’s two pretty good starts, and two pretty bad starts.
“I remember (Sept. 2) was probably the first or second game that I really used my slider quite a bit,” Hughes said. “And I think that could be a big pitch against this team that really likes to hit the fastball. So yeah, I mean, it’s a tough lineup. Obviously (tonight) is going to be a big game.”
At his best, Hughes can be dominant. At his worst, he can be knocked out of a game in the second inning. His season could be seen as a positive, or it could be considered treading water. Tonight could go a long way toward definitively defining his year.
“I had a bad start to the season, had some bad starts mixed in,” Hughes said. “But looking at the positives, I felt like I was able to get the ball every five days and give us a chance to win as much as I could. Kind of an up-and-down season, but you can’t really look at the regular season when it comes to times like this. You just throw that out the window and just try to do the best job you can.”
Associated Press photo
Make or break indeed. If he continues his struggles, I could see Cash “listening” on offers for Hughes this winter. But I’m hoping for a dominant Hughes… and that he doesn’t fall in love with his fastball.
Is it possible Girardi is a mad genius and planned this whole thing when he put Arod at DH instead of Chavez knowing this was a possibility way in advance of the 7th inning which is when he said he thought about pinch hitting for Arod?
Could be…if Arod was at 3rd then Chavez moves there and they lose the DH robbing Ibanez of his next AB/HR. With Jeter hurt, he would have had to put Nix and Nunez in the field and that could have changed the game.
re-post:
Shame, you need to send me a bag of those fancy cookies for having suck poor channel-searching skills and because Girardi never lost the DH, even in allllll those extra innings.
m, nice to see you back.
Aside from the homer that he’s destined to give up to Jim Thome, I’m looking for a strong performance from Hughes tonight.
go phil!
mick,
A few of us were talking about that yesterday afternoon. Chavez and Ibanez both had a few hits off of Gonzalez in the past, so it made sense to start one of them (I even thought both). Chavez playing third makes sense since he’s a better fielder than A-Rod, and leaving Ibanez on the bench makes sense because of his pinch hitting history. There you go.
prediction: alex rodriguez, batting third will get a hit in his first at-bat and later hit a home run tonight.
Do you play Ibanez as the DH or in LF and sit Grandy with Ichi in Center? Or leave Ibanez as a PH?
Nick in SF October 11th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
re-post:
Shame, you need to send me a bag of those fancy cookies for having suck poor channel-searching skills and because Girardi never lost the DH, even in allllll those extra innings.
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I thought out bet was one sided? I even posted that I’d gladly take a bet where I had nothing to lose but cookies to gain (however unlikely).
Although I probably should just do it since I really couldn’t find the game last night, which was an epic fail. I didn’t try very hard but I couldn’t remember what channel TNT was and for all the technological prowess we show, we still cannot get those things to reflect what is on tv in real time. I’m sure my guide was telling me they were showing Law and Order reruns.
quality first pitch strike and not a get ahead strike is important for hughes. 1st pitch swinging produce 2 hrs for the o’s last night, plus they attack kuroda on his 1st pitch so many times.
Hughes was great in ’07 (throwback)
So many possibilities tonight:
DH’s could be Jeter, Ibanez or Nunez
You can sit Swisher or Granderson, play Ichiro in CF or even Gardner.
Ibanez can play RF.
If Ichiro goes to CF and Ibanez to RF , who plays LF?
He might sit Grandy over Swisher and put Ibanez in RF.
We have gone from a one -dimensional team to one with multi-facets.
hope jeter can play ss so ibanez can dh otherwise a big decision. Defense or bat? hughes is a fly ball pitcher and that is a generous statement bec. he gives up rockets.
It wasn’t a bet, per se, it was an offer based on my confidence that Girardi wasn’t going to lose the DH. You should send me the cookies as a penalty, not as a loss of a bet. And yes, I am authorized to make such a ruling. If you want to save the hassle, you can just send me $6 and I’ll buy the cookies myself at the Woodlands Market in Kentfield, CA, which is about 10 minutes from where I’m currently staying.
Short hook, if his balls r up u have to pull him right away before it becomes HR durby for the O’s
start with the bats, get ahead, add on off the middle relievers, then bring in the gloves.
jeter,ichiro,arod,cano,tex,ibanez,martin,grandy,nix
We have gone from a one -dimensional team to one with multi-facets.
Trouble is, Mick, not too many are working right now. I know everyone – including me – is still ebullient right now after last night, but take away Raul’s two homers and the mood in here today would be downright ugly. One run in 12 innings with that starting lineup is, to be blunt, pathetic. I just want to see A-Rod, Swish and Grandy join the party somehow, some way tonight.
Can Phelps hold the O’s down if Hughes can’t?
Anyone else think that Mark Reynolds bears a striking resemblance to the late Tigers’s pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fydrich?
“Maybe 10 years ago, I react in a much different way,” Rodriguez said..
Uhm, 10 years ago ? How about 3 years ago. “I’ve matured..” Yeah, okay buddy.. Arod really meant to say, “I’ve learned to talk to the press and not dig myself deeper into trouble”. Joke!
Team player..
If he is such the team player, maybe he’ll rework his contract to not handcuff the NYY “TEAM” to make moves in the future.
With that said, people buy into the BS that people spew and miss the ‘read between the lines’ intuitiveness..
Arod could’ve said something like, “Hey I’ve been really struggling and because of that I was PH for.”
The BIGGER problem..
I’ve been saying for awhile that Girardi is not “the manager” of this team and the players do not respect him. The team “manages” Girardi, believe it! If you don’t think so, read between the lines.. he basically said he had to get “Alex’s permission” before he made the move. It was obvious Joe throw all the relationship dynamics out the window last night and was making that move no matter what. THAT is a manager, maybe this changes things for the better going forward, but if you witnessed the dynamics of the clubhouse previous to this, you’d see more clearly why a lot of the things are the way they are. No lineup moving, no players given direction about first-pitch swinging, bunting, told not to always swing for the HR, a lot fo things a manager is supposed to do. Kevin Long is another issue but it’s more of managers job to guide the hitter to what he expects of him, Long is doing his job and staying out of the part.
Anyway..
All this talk about what is going to happen to Arod next.. is going to be squashed. Arod is a true talent, maybe he is bad right now and yes he is BAD right now, but he really is not as bad as he has been. He’ll step up and he is a very ego-driven person. Expect him to come up guns blazing tonight (plus he has great numbers against Saunders) and he might even make magic happen himself. IN the off-season he will workout like the hulk to prove his namesake.
Bottom line.. how bad our bats are and have been was over-shadowed by the amazing Ibanez.. but if we play like that tonight, it’s really gonna be tough to W the last game of the series with momentum shifted yet again to the O’s. I haven’t given up on this team making it happen, somehow with how bad they are, and they are only good for one good inning it would seem, they’ve fought and found ways to W. We may see more magic tonight or we may see the same dead wood and get that lucky hit(s). I dunno much, but I can say this.. playoff baseball is surely delivering this year and it is fun to watch no matter what happens!
Cincinnati certainly had a dream season…But they are losing 2-0 now in the fifth to the Giants….
Posey grandslam
And Posey ices it…..unreal
epic collapse by reds…started with cueto
posey factor undeniable.
I’d luv to see the Giants play the Cards, four teams to be an old school CS round
With Hughes and his fly-ball history, you gotta put your Best defensive outfielders in the starting lineup. Go with Jeet at DH, Nix at SS, and figure onna small ball approach. Jump to the lead Before Hughes starts getting banged around, and ratchet the pressure up on the O’s. Buck looked like ALL the air was outta the ballon during his post game appearance.
Wow, Posey. What a comeback by the Giants, and Dusty Baker is saddled (potentially) with another big-game loss.
down go the 61 reds beaten by the 62 giants
bring on the 70′s A’s…
watch out for the 64 Cards.
MVPosey
If the Yankees don’t make the world series, an A’s Giants World Series would be pretty cool
I expect Hughes to pitch well tonight
If the Yankees don’t make the world series, an A’s Giants World Series would be pretty cool
=============
too scary, health hazard
My friend is at the Reds game. He went to game 4 also lol. What a nightmare.
With Hughes and his fly-ball history, you gotta put your Best defensive outfielders in the starting lineup.
====================
Ichiro CF, gardner LF, Swisher RF???
Reds went from looking so dominant after Sunday Nights game in San Fran and probably being a leg up as the team that “looked” like could win it all. To now being Out.
Harsh realities of October.
Todd Frazier, who I covered when his Toms River team won the Little League World Series back in 1998, had a break-out year with that Reds team so I was kinda rooting for them (Todd’s a great kid). Ah well….You just can’t predict baseball.
Davey Johnson seems like a grandfatherly guy, too bad he’s done tonight.
Raul put his name in a lot of key spots of the record books last night. Just amazing.
Posey remains the only cool person named Buster
I don’t want to grab all the credit, but we won the two games when I wore my lucky shirt and lost the one where I was out and couldn’t. Relax, I will wear it tonight.
I suppose the Yankees won’t give me a playoff cut depsite my clear value. Won 100% with and lost 100% without. It is remotely possible we are dealing with a small sample size.
Any news on Jeter?
Great game by the Binder. He left the binder closed it seems and look at the results. He should never have to ask a playerif he can pinch-hit for him, but this may simply have been a courtesy move and had ARod said no, quite possibly Girardi would have gone ahead and done it anyways.
Really the offence has been putrid in the last two games. I don’t know why Swisher has to to take every swing as if there are no tomorrows. Surely someone in Yankee land has talked to him about this. This will hurt Swisher on the Free Agent market as well.
HOPING THEY CLOSE IT OUT TONIGHT.
Its really pretty simple, yanks win and advance tonight if the offense shows up!
BOTH Davey Johnson and Dusty Baker are too old to have the energy necessary to lead teams in the Playoffs. 162 wears ‘em down. One has a mug shot to prove it, the other a growing medical chart.
Reds get 2 back…. not dead yet.
between Buck, Dusty and Davey, they’ve managed almost every team still alive in the PO
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/b.....t-a-choker
Alex didn’t look too happy in the dugout before the HR.
Think that move helps him ‘mature” even more.
I watched a reply of the PH Home Run in the 9th and I love, absolutely love the reaction
from Mo and ARod.
They looked to me like two 10 year kids playing on the sandlot!
I don’t think Girardi sits Grandy or Swisher. I think Ibanez pinch hits. Just based on how Girardi normally operates. Especially since Jeter will probably DH and Nix will be in the field. He’s not going to sit two regular guys who have been weapons all season. Plus, he views Ibanez as a weapon off the bench against a RHP, which of course he is.
Hip Hop
Jeter’s availability will impact the line-up and maybe whether or not Ibanez starts tonight
as the DH or in LF
Hughes still worries me alot, this guy is so inconsistent.
Giants and that bullpen, make a 4 run lead in the 6th, look like an 8 run lead. Baker gonna be 2nd guessed for going so long with Latos in an elimination game, and Not using Frazier instead of Rolen in the series. Frazier was instrumental in that run the Reds made when Votto went down.
Can somebody here please answer a couple questions regarding Bald Vinny?
1)Does he have season tickets in the right field bleachers
2)What does he scream just before he begins the roll call?
Every time I try to decipher what he screams, I can’t come up with anything that makes sense.
Every time I see Buster Posey I think of that home plate collision. Man he looked like he was in pain.
Sad news: http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/.....44031.html
i think he screams “YOOOOOOOOOOOO”
This couldn’t happen at a worse time for Joe. Thoughts & prayers for his family.
Yeah, Bald Vinny has season tickets and he screams “Yooooooo” although even sitting right in front of him from time to time, it sometimes sounds like something else. He writes a blog and sells t-shirts at http://www.baldvinny.com.
Hughes is definitely more of a wildcard than the first three starters, but I’ve got confidence in him tonight. And last night’s win could help. It’s not an elimination game, perhaps he’ll pitch with a little bit more ease.
Speaking of last night’s win, I hope Raul is in the starting lineup tonight. The sequence of big-time HRs still has me grinning, especially that walk-off HR. You rarely see a lefty vs. lefty tomahawk shot like that, especially when the hitter is generally a low-ball hitter. I hope Raul is rewarded for his superhero performance last night.
That’s awful for Girardi. I hope they win it tonight for him so he can attend to his Father’s funeral.
Hughes aint a Wild Card, he’s a Joker. You open a fresh pack of playing cards, the 1ST thing you do is throw-out The Jokers. Same applies to Hughes.
For those who don’t read links…
Joel Sherman ?@Joelsherman1
Joe Girardi’s father, Jerry, died today. But I have confirmed Joe Girardi IS managing Game 4 tonight. #Yankees #Orioles
Wow what is Cinncy Doing!
Baker looks to have run himself outta a Big Inning.
When is Posey a FA again?
Rest in Peace Mr. Girardi…. win it for him tonight!
with this anemic lineup, dont feel good with hughes
G. Love says:
October 11, 2012 at 3:17 pm
That’s awful for Girardi. I hope they win it tonight for him so he can attend to his Father’s funeral.
Condolences Joe….very sad.
San Fran has to lock Posey down. He is their offense. Don’t know how long he’ll stay at catcher though.
Was Girardis father sick or was this unexpected?
I believe that Giardi’s dad had alzheimers…. I remember a story the day that Girardi got the job. He told his dad he was going to be the manager of the Yankees and his dad smiled for the first time in a very long while.
blake says:
October 11th, 2012 at 3:21 pm
Was Girardis father sick or was this unexpected?
Suffered from Alzheimers.
@mikeaxisa: I know Girardi’s father had Alzheimer’s and he’d often visit him on off-days. That’s sad.
oh my, win it for Joe tonight!
I didn’t even know that about Joe’s dad….
RadioKev October 11th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
For those who don’t read links…
Joel Sherman ?@Joelsherman1
Joe Girardi’s father, Jerry, died today. But I have confirmed Joe Girardi IS managing Game 4 tonight. #Yankees #Orioles
——————————–
R.I.P.
I think his dad had Alzheimer’s. Very sad news for Joe.
@Joelsherman1: Jerry Girardi had been suffering from Alzheimer’s. Joe often credited his father for instilling toughness in him. #Yankees #Orioles
Alzheimer what a horrible disorder
blake October 11th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
I didn’t even know that about Joe’s dad….
———————
He touched on it a few times. I remember him tearing up when he spoke about it.
What sad news for Joe. Now he has that awful dilemma of having to decide whether to put family or job first. His dad would probably have wanted him to manage tonight.
I remember all the rumors that Tampa was going to take Posey with the 1st pick. Instead they took Tim Beckham…. thank goodness for that.
Win this thing tonight for Joe guys
Look, a pitcher can catch an infield fly.
altiemers is a sad disease, it is painful for the person and the people close to them as well
Tyler says:
October 11, 2012 at 3:25 pm
I remember all the rumors that Tampa was going to take Posey with the 1st pick. Instead they took Tim Beckham…. thank goodness for that.
Seriously……
Thanks to those who answered my question
regarding Bald Vinny
The need to find a cure for, or some relief from, Alzheimers was the reason I thought the new version of Rise of the Planet of the Apes was so great
“altiemers is a sad disease, it is painful for the person and the people close to them as well”
FYI alzheimer is a disorder not a disease, nevertheless RIP
Tonight is the night that Young Master Hughes becomes a man as he pitches for the series close-out……..Somewhere Betsy will be happy later tonight as will many Yankee fans……..Very sad news for The Yankee Skipper but at least now there’ll be a sense of peace for the Giradi Family as the suffering has passed…..Very difficult situation this disease presents to the loved ones………Hughes will establish his yankker tonight and then pound cheese at the Showtimore hitters as Cinderella’s coach turns back into a pumpkin around 10:30 tonight ……The good folks in the Bay Area must be feeling good right about now !!!!! Our Pal Nicky as well
Oh yeah. Joe’s been very public about his dad having Alzheimer’s. Seemed like he’d always visit whenever he was in Chicago.
Willie Randolph to throw out first pitch tonight, apparently.
Poor Joe. Win one for the skipper, guys
I’m sorry for Joe. Loss of a loved was is a very sad event no matter how sick they were. It feels so final. I agree, let’s win tonight and give him a little time with his family.
Bruce Bochy has a real feel for managing the pen
Cautiously optimistic for Hughes…. but he really only had one solid start out of four against Baltimore (avoiding damage in another though not pitching that great.)
If there is a game where the Yankee bats need to carry their weight, it’s tonight.
I also think the Os pen could be a tad more tired and vulnerable. Need to be patient with Saunders and get to the pen.
Brandon Phillips is a nice player. He may be the second best second baseman in the game …
tucker says:
October 11, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Brandon Phillips is a nice player. He may be the second best second baseman in the game …
He is
Hughes could learn a lot from the way the O’s pitcher threw the ball last night.
Those 2 have similar stuff & throw from the right side. Hughes needs to keep the O’s off balance tonight. If not, there might be a lot of HR’s.
Go to that change-up for swinging strikes.
Get that curve over from strike one and make the O’s respect that curve and not spit on the
pitch for a ball.
Insane play by Crawford
I think Hughes might be the perfect wake-up call for Jones, Weiters and Hardy…doesn’t mean they will wake up, and hopefully Hughesy pitches well, but they couldn’t ask for a better matchup
My sincerest to Joe and the Girardi family over the loss of his father.
Heard it confirmed that Joe will be in the dugout tonight … managing with a very heavy heart I am sure … let’s win it tonight for Joe!!!!
Wow! Brian cashman and giradi’s father both passes away weeks apart. Rip
Cano – .167
Granderson – .091
Arod – .083
They are all equally brutal, but I haven’t heard anyone talk about them, just Arod.