Monday, April 28, 2008

Back home to Yankee Stadium

Part of the MLB season is about survival. You can't always be on a hot streak, and when you're down and the situation looks grim, sometimes the best course of action is to try and break even. That's just what the Yanks did during this long, long road trip. They still have to wait until May 5 for their second off day of the season, but playing 18 of their last 20 games on the road the Yanks have to be satisfied with going 9-9, especially since they did it against some difficult teams like Cleveland, Boston and a tough young Rays club.

Now the bats are still pretty dormant. That big rally for four runs in the sixth was the softest four run inning I have ever seen. The loss of Posada is going to hurt, but they are still in good shape. Mussina is doing enough to stick around, and that's all they need from him this year is to keep them in most games and eat about 180 innings. The bullpen, aside from some rough outings from Hawkins and the perennial disappointment that is Kyle Farnsworth, has been solid behind the dynamic duo that is Chamberlain and Rivera. The only hope is to find someone who can do a comparable job as a set up guy when they decide to slide Joba into the rotation. And they should put him there.

Hughes will try to build off of his two inning performance in Chicago against the Tigers who have been hot and cold offensively. I think Hughes has found some of what he was missing in his first few starts and is poised to turn it around. His outing in Baltimore was better than his line indicated and against the White Sox he carried over those improvements. We'll see if the rain disrupted that momentum or not.

5 comments:

Dennis said...

Does the complete game by Buchholz put even more pressure on Hughes to perform?

Peter said...

I guess if Buchholz had actually won the game then maybe.

Dan said...

Is the jury still out on Georgie's shoulder? If it's torn, he'll be out for the majority of the year I would think. If that happens, will the Yanks sign Mike Piazza, ha ha!

Dennis said...

Well hold on a second now Pete. You just wrote an entire paragraph about Hughes based on 2 nearly rained out innings, yet you are dismissing a 3 H, 2 R, 9 K complete game on the road?

Peter said...

Everyone has a good game now and then and by your logic a young pitcher like Buchholz will collapse in a pennant race anyway.