The latest less-than-stellar outing by a Yankees starter wasn’t all Phil Hughes’ fault. Not according to Joe Girardi, anyway.
Asked about Hughes’ four-inning, four-run stint in the Yankees’ rain-delayed 6-4 loss to the Red Sox last night in front of an announced crowd of 46,426 at Yankee Stadium, Girardi took the onus off the right-hander.
“I thought he threw decent,” Girardi said of Hughes, who allowed three earned runs, seven hits and walked four. “I know he gave up four runs in four innings. I saw some things I didn’t like, and not with Phil Hughes.”
Clearly, Girardi didn’t agree with plate umpire Jerry Meals’ strike zone, since he was ejected in the fifth by Meals for arguing a called third strike on Derek Jeter.
“I didn’t like it, that’s the best way for me to explain it,” Girardi said.
Hughes didn’t blame or exonerate Meals.
“He was pretty consistent and I was missing by a little bit,” said Hughes, who is 1-1. “You want to make pitchers’ pitches, but it seemed like I was behind in the count and they jumped on a few of them. It was frustrating, I hit spots I wanted to hit.”
The 13-12 Yankees’ second straight loss and fourth in four games against the Red Sox might have been costly, though. Jorge Posada left the game for pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui in the eighth with a right hamstring injury that is severe enough for him to be stuffed into the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube today.
“He said he felt something grab,” said Girardi, who explained Posada (2-for-2 and a walk) suffered the injury sliding. “It’s not something we need right now.”
The start of the game was delayed 2 hours and 17 minutes by rain.
Jon Lester (2-2) provided seven innings of three-run, six-hit, 10-strikeout pitching for the winners.
Girardi jawed with Red Sox first-base coach Tim Bogar in the fourth but refused to get into the reason. However, according to a person who heard the exchange, Girardi didn’t like Bogar moving around outside the coaching box. Coaches often do that in an attempt to steal signs.
“I am not going to comment on that,” Girardi said. “It was baseball men being baseball men, and leave it at that.”
Kevin Youkilis, the Red Sox first baseman and the AL’s leading hitter at the start of the night, left the game in the sixth with tightness in the left lower back.
Mike Lowell and Jason Bay homered for the Red Sox, and Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira went back-to-back for the Yankees in the fifth off Lester. Batting left-handed Teixeira homered off Ramon Ramirez starting the eighth. He is the 11th Yankee to homer from each side of the plate.
Jonathan Papelbon recorded the final five outs for his seventh save. However, he had to fan Robinson Cano with the bases loaded in the ninth to seal the victory.
Even if Meals was the reason, Hughes’ short and ineffective outing was the latest sub-par performance by a Yankees starter.
When the starters’ putrid numbers are mentioned, the Yankees counter that Chien-Ming Wang’s three dreadful starts (0-3; 34.50 ERA) skew the math.
However, in the 13 games since Wang last pitched the Yankees are 7-6, and their starters are 3-4 with a bloated 4.91 ERA. In 80 2/3 innings, the starters have allowed 84 hits, 38 walks and hit seven batters. That’s 129 base-runners in 80 2/3 innings without Wang.
Leading, 4-3, in the seventh, Bay crushed a two-run homer off Alfredo Aceves.
In what has become a telling trend, the Yankees are 2-9 when committing at least one error. Last night Jeter and Jose Molina made throwing errors, and Molina was charged with a passed ball that led to Boston’s first run in the opening inning. The Yankees are 11-3 in clean games.
