Three months ago, the Yankees did not have enough faith in Javier Vazquez to send him to the Fenway Park mound against the Red Sox.
Tonight, Vazquez takes the ball for the first game of an important four-game series with Boston.
It’s a sign of how far the right-hander has turned around his season.
Vazquez has recovered from a disastrous start to become the Yankees’ most consistent starting pitcher as they head into the weekend.
“It’s a good feeling that I’m throwing the ball better and I’m helping the team,” said Vazquez, who is 9-7 with a 4.61 ERA.
Yankee manager Joe Girardi decided to skip Vazquez when the team went to Fenway Park in early May. Vazquez was 1-4 with an 8.10 ERA and looked lost. Memories of how his 2004 stint with the Yankees ended were in everyone’s mind, and the boos at Yankee Stadium were loud on May 1 when he bottomed out against the White Sox in a three-inning, five-run mess.
“We thought it was important to skip him just to evaluate a little bit and let him take a deep breath,” Girardi said this week.
“Sometimes when you’re on your routine it can be difficult to make subtle changes. I also felt that his fastball wasn’t up to where it had been, and I thought maybe he was going through a little bit of a dead arm and it would help him.”
At the time, Vazquez was upset that he was getting skipped. Now, he thinks it was a good decision.
“The way my mind was at that time, I think it helped me,” he said. “I guess it helped me relax a little bit or something. I don’t know. I think it did help me. I’m ready for [tonight].”
Vazquez came back to the Yankees last winter in a trade with the Braves. He admits now that he tried too hard in April to quiet the critics who brought up Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, when he allowed a grand slam to Johnny Damon of the Red Sox.
“No doubt,” Vazquez said. “I think that was one of my mistakes. I was trying to win 10 games in a couple of weeks.”
Things turned around for Vazquez shortly after he was skipped. He had a good outing in Detroit, and then, in his lone relief appearance, he struck out Boston’s Kevin Youkilis in the ninth inning.
“I just think for me the key was forgetting about the past and just looking forward to now and the rest of the season,” Vazquez said. “That was the big key for me.”
