Last night was a great sports night filled with pure exuberation, due to the fact that my team allegiances are unorthodox to say the least. My Bruins beat the Sabres in double overtime and the Yankees took the A’s to task with a 3-1 win. Did I forget to mention that Phil Hughes threw 7 innings of no-hit ball? That was pretty exciting too!I must admit that the Bruin game did take precedence over the Yankees until the game was over, it is the playoffs afterall. However I was following the game on my phone and rushed home to make sure I could watch the end. In what I thought would be the ultimate jinx John Sterling made sure to mention that Hughes was throwing a no-hitter at the end of the 4th! I’m sure he mentioned it numerous times in the preceeding innings, luckily I was home and got to watch the game for myself.
To say Hughes was dominate would be a huge understatement, he was blowing these hitters away with his fastball and only going to his secondary pitches when necessary. If it wasn’t for an Eric Chavez, yes he still plays, single to start the 8th I truly believe Hughes would have finally gotten a no-hitter. Finally? Yes Finally, remember? He left a game against the Rangers after 6.1 innings due to pulling his hamstring on the mound.
In all seriousness, Phil Hughes looked amazing last night and we may have finally seen what is potential is. In ’08, I can say with confidence that, all Yankee fans were disappointed in what we saw out of Hughes. It was finally his time to shine after all the hype and all the stories of how dominate he was, of course we saw flashes in ’07, but injuries kept him in the dugout, and he was flat-out awful.
’08 Stats: 8 Starts, 0-4 record, 6.62 ERA with a 1.71 WHIP and a very unimpressive 23k’s in 34 Innings Pitched
It was evident that either he wasn’t ready for the big leagues or he was still tentative to go full force because of the injury the year prior. We could see that there was something there he just hadn’t completed the puzzle yet.
’09 was anticipatory, with a revamped rotation everyone figured the “young guns”, Joba and Hughes, would hit their stride and pitch lights out. Joba ended up winning the battle for the 5th, or 4th?, rotation spot, which sent Hughes to the ‘pen and a role as the “8th inning guy”. Early struggles led to talks of Hughes being sent to the minors again to work out the kinks, a move that may have hurt him more than helped, but eventually Hughes got through his troubles and became, possible, the most dominant set-up man in the game.
After an appearance in a game against Boston where Hughes pitched 3.2 innings and gave up 2 runs he was lights out, going on a run of 16 straight appearances where he didn’t give up a run, lowering his bloated ERA from 5.26 to 3.43. Hughes carried on his confidence and great pitching through the rest of the year where his ’09 stats looked like this:
8-3 record, 3.03 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and a dominate 96k’s over 86 innings pitched
Clearly a great turnaround from ’08, which threw Hughes back into the hunt for the 5th rotation spot this year. Hughes’ great spring training won him the job and sent Joba to the ‘pen, and in my opinion this is the way it should be. Hughes is off to a great start and is, again, looking like the phenom he was slated to be in the minors. He has great stuff that will carry him far and is economical with his pitches, because of this I can see 2010 being a career defining year for him and I am excited to see how it all unfolds.
