Bombers get Romped

The title of the post says it all. As I predicted, tonight's game was high scoring but in favor of the Red Sox as all the Yankees could manage to get across in nine innings was one meager run. The Red Sox had an offensive explosion, hitting a grand slam and a three-run home run en route to an east 11-1 victory over Phil Hughes and the Yankees. Hughes was coasting through three innings until he hit a bump in the fourth. After intentionally walking David Ortiz to load the bases with one out in the fourth inning, Mike Napoli made Hughes pay by crushing a grand slam home run to knock Hughes out of the game. Phil Hughes is becoming an enigma for the Yankees, much like AJ Burnett was in 2010 and 2011. He has the ability to throw shutouts, which he has shown he can do over the course of his young career. This season he has had several outings where he left the game having given up one or two runs but eventually comes away with nothing. Then he has nights like tonight, where he doesn't have anything in the tank and blows games open for the opposing team, making it nearly impossible for the Yankees to make a comeback.

The Yankee offense was as mentioned above, meager. The only run to cross the plate was via a Chris Stewart sac fly. Stewart would end up leaving the game due to dehydration. The only thing drier than Stewart's system is the lack of offense by the Yankees. They are not hitting home runs and their former run producers look like they are running out of gas two months into the season. Mark Teixeira is slowly looking more comfortable at the plate and Youkilis never really stopped hitting for the Yankees. The success of Mark Teixeira is vital to this team's success as he becomes the second-best hitter on the team after Robinson Cano, who is slumping badly himself. When Cano isn't hitting and the rest of the lineup looks anemic, the Yankees are in trouble. For the sake of Robinson Cano, he better start hitting and soon. The lineup needs an impact bat that puts fear into opposing pitchers. Right now the current lineup as it stands is not doing it for the Yankees. As for Hughes, he is pitching himself out of earning a big time contract. If I was one of thirty teams in MLB, I wouldn't give a pitcher with an ERA of 5.37 anything more than a one year deal to see if he can straighten himself out. It's still early in the season and Hughes can have an excellent year the rest of the way but for right now, he needs to figure out how to put batters away.

Tomorrow night will be a battle of two outstanding pitchers as Hiroki Kuroda will pitch for the Yankees coming off his brilliant no decision against the Mets. Kuroda is looking for his seventh win and he will try to get it against a nasty Red Sox lineup and a starting pitcher who doesn't give up earned runs in Clay Buccholz. Buccholz is pitching to a 1.73 ERA and only has one loss against seven wins.