The Captain's Blog

The Seattle Mariners anemic offense should have been an ideal matchup for Phil Hughes, but the Yankees’ young righty suffered with his command in the zone all game. Before exiting with two outs in the sixth, Hughes had surrendered seven runs on 10 hits to a Mariners’ lineup that was averaging only 3.4 runs per game. 

What uniform will Cliff Lee be wearing this time next month? Unfortunately for the Yankees, Mariners was still emblazoned across his chest during last night's complete game victory.

After throwing a scoreless first inning and being staked to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a Nick Swisher home run, Hughes allowed the lead off runner to reach and score in each of the next four innings. By the sixth inning, it was clear that Hughes had reached the end of his rope, but for some reason Joe Girardi allowed his pitcher to hang himself. Even after Jack Wilson’s RBI single extended the Mariners’ lead to 5-1, Girardi left Hughes in to surrender a two-run double to Rob Johnson. Girardi’s inability to see that Hughes was not going to regain his lost command left the Yankees in an insurmountable 7-1 hole. 

Once staked to a large lead, Cliff Lee went about carving up the Yankees lineup. With the exception of Nick Swisher, who hit his second solo homerun of the game in the sixth inning, Lee surrendered only one single to Curtis Granderson from the fourth through the eighth innings, putting him in line for his third straight complete game. 

In the ninth, the Yankees did make Lee work hard to go the distance, rallying for two runs and coming within one baserunner of bringing the tying run to the plate. Had Girardi been more proactive in removing Hughes from the game, the ninth inning rally might have had more teeth, but the deficit was too large to overcome. 

There’s no shame in losing to a top pitcher like Cliff Lee, but giving up seven runs to one of the game’s worst lineups is somewhat disconcerting. Unlike other outings when he hasn’t had his best stuff, Hughes’ struggles seemed to result from an inability to command his fastball within the strike zone. Hughes has been able spot both his two seam and four seam fastballs all season, so it’s only natural to suggest that the long layoff was the reason that so many kept leaking back across the middle of the plate.

Although protecting Hughes should be a priority, the Yankees have to also make sure they do not disrupt his routine to the point that it renders him ineffective. Hopefully, yesterday’s blip represents just a brief re-acclimation period for Hughes because the Yankees need their young ace to help compensate for the struggles of AJ Burnett. Considering the latter, perhaps it wasn’t the best time to skip Hughes, but that’s water under the bridge now. Going forward, however, the Yankees have to make sure the “Hughes Rules” do not compromise the team’s pennant hopes. 

Phil Hughes’ Pitch Breakdown

• With Joe West umpiring a Yankees game for the first time since making disparaging comments about the their pace of the play, both teams were on their best behavior for the Cowboy. The game was played in a brisk 2 1/2 hours.
• Before the game, Tennis player John Isner threw out the first pitch. Last week at Wimbledon, Isner took part in the longest match ever played at a WTA grandslam event.
• Cliff Lee’s third straight complete game increased his league leading total to four. Lee is the first pitcher to complete three straight games since C.C. Sabathia accomplished the feat in July 2008. The stretch is also the longest since Roy Halladay completed four straight games in April 2008.
• Including the World Series, Lee is now 5-1 in his last six starts against the Yankees.
• Nick Swisher belted two homeruns in one game for the 15th time in his career.

With the Red Sox and Rays playing a three game series to start the week, the Yankees should have been presented with an excellent opportunity to gain some ground by beating up on the lowly Seattle Mariners. Unfortunately, Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez are lined up to pitch the first two games of the series, so taking two of three, not to mention sweeping, won’t be so easy.

With the Mariners about to waive the white flag on 2010, Lee is likely to be the one true difference maker available in the trade market. In fact, the rumors have already started, including more than a few that have the Mariners’ lefty landing in the Bronx. Such a scenario is unlikely, but Lee is all but assured of being somewhere else by this time next month. For the time being, however, Lee remains a Mariner, making him the Yankees’ problem tonight.

Including his two victories in the 2009 World Series, Lee is 4-1 with a 2.31 ERA in five starts against the Yankkes since 2008, Lee’s Cy Young season. Yet, several current Yankees have had success against the talented lefty: Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez both have an OPS well above 1.000, while Jeter, Swisher and Posada all top the .900 mark. As a team, the Yankees have an OPS of .901 in 185 career plate appearances against Lee. Even though those figures do not include Lee’s two World Series victories, they do suggest that Lee will have his hands full with the Yankees lineup.

Even if Lee does have a strong outing, the Mariners still need to score runs off of Phil Hughes. With an OPS+ of 79 and a paltry runs per game of 3.40, the Mariners haven’t had much luck scoring off of anyone, so facing the Yankees talented young righty figures to be an even greater challenge. With the exception of the always dangerous Ichiro and defensive whiz Franklin Gutierrez, the rest of the Mariners lineup has performed not only well below expectations, but also well below league average (the Mariners have five regulars with an OPS+ below 78). In order to help boost their floundering offense, the Mariners reacquired Russell Branyan, and he is batting third in the lineup tonight.

One potential pitfall for Hughes could be the long layoff since his last start. In an effort to curtail his number of innings, the Yankees skipped over Hughes’ last turn in the rotation, giving him 10 days of rest before tonight’s start. It remains to be seen if that long period of inactivity will result in a loss of command, but assuming he is able to quickly shake of the rust, Hughes should be primed for a strong start against the run starved Mariners.

You can’t blame Joe Torre if he lapsed into a bout of déjà vu while watching Mariano Rivera mow down the Dodgers while protecting a narrow lead in the ninth. When  James Loney took a called third strike to end the game, however, the spell was finally broken as the Dodgers’ bench, led by Torre and Don Mattingly, erupted in protest. Mattingly repeatedly shouted that the final strike call was a joke (alongside a few choice explicative), but it was no laughing matter for the Dodgers, who have now lost seven of their last eight games.

Joe Torre was all smiles at the sight of Mariano Rivera before the first game between the Dodgers and Yankees. His demeanor was much more dour after watching Rivera strike out the side to earn the save against his Dodgers (Photo: AP).

What looked like a mismatch on paper quickly evolved into a pitchers’ duel between CC Sabathia and Vicente Padilla. The Dodgers got on the board first after Furcal led off the first with a walk, stole second and eventually scored on a two out hit by Manny Ramirez. From that point on, however, the Dodgers would only advance one more runner as far as second base. After starting the game with an explosive, albeit sometimes erratic fastball, Sabathia was able to shift gears in the second half of the game by featuring his change-up and curveball, the latter which he was able to throw for a strike over 80% of the time. In his eighth and final inning, Sabathia appeared to tire a little, but used his entire arsenal to retire the side in order despite running a full count on every batter. By following up on his eight shutout innings against the Mets with another strong outing, Sabathia seems to be on track to be the ace level pitcher the Yankees relied upon so heavily last season.

The reason Sabathia had to work so hard in tonight’s game was because Padilla manufactured an almost equally strong outing by throwing everything but a knuckleball at the Yankees. By featuring a curve as slow as 55 and a fastball topping out around 95, Padilla was able to keep the Yankees off balance for most of the night. Alex Rodriguez didn’t seem to be fooled, however. In the top of the second, Arod led off the inning with a double on a first pitch fastball and eventually scored the tying run on Jorge Posada’s RBI single. Then, leading off the sixth, Arod drove another first pitch fastball deep into the left field seats to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Before the series, Torre stated that he didn’t hold any hard feelings toward Arod, but after tonight’s game, he might be singing a different tune.

In addition to throwing against Padilla, Sabathia also took the opportunity to throw at him. After Robinson Cano was plunked in the top of the fourth, Sabathia responded by drilling Padilla in the leg during his next at bat in the fifth. Although the pitch seemed to be in retaliation for the pitch that hit Cano, it could also have easily been a long overdue response for Mark Teixeira being drilled twice by Padilla in his last game against the Yankees while he was with Texas during June of last season. After hitting Padilla, Sabathia took a very aggressive posture, but no further incident ensued. It remains to be seen whether the Dodgers were content to see Padilla take his medicine, or if a response will be forthcoming in game two.

Before the game, the storyline centered on Joe Torre facing off against his old team, but by the ninth inning, a classic battle of future Hall of Famers took center stage. As he has done so many times in the past, Mariano Rivera squared off against Manny Ramirez and once again got the best of the long running confrontation. After striking out Ramirez, Rivera then did the same to Kemp and Loney to close out the game. In a somewhat eerie scene, Torre and Mattingly were not celebrating Mo’s save, as they had done so many times in the past, but were instead angrily disputing the result. Although the protestations from the Dodgers were strong (and carried over to the post game), PitchFX data suggested that each pitch to Loney was in fact a strike. Perhaps he was simply trying to shield his player from any action that might warrant a suspension, but Mattingly’s uncharacteristic display of invective was still a disconcerting sight to see.

Judging by the Dodgers’ reaction at the end of the game, it seems as if the team has placed a little extra emphasis on this series. From the Yankees standpoint, however, building a lead in the AL East remains all the motivation that the team needs. Despite not being able to put together a truly dominant game in some time, the Yankees keep managing to do just enough to win games, even though their rare losses to some less than marquee pitchers have almost made it seem as if they have been struggling. Tonight’s game against Padilla looked as if it was headed down that same path, but Sabathia, Arod and Mariano combined to alter the course.

CC Sabathia’s Pitch Breakdown

• The Yankees are now 2-2 against the Dodgers in the regular season, leaving the Cincinnati Reds (2-4) as the only team against which they do not have at least a .500 record.
• Manny Ramirez now has 164 RBIs against the Yankees, his highest total against any team.
• With is ninth inning strike out, Ramirez is 8 for 39 in 44 plate appearances against Mariano Rivera. Rivera has both faced (44 Pas) and struck out (13) Ramirez more than any other opponent.