Hughes Impressive In Return To The Majors

Boy am I exhausted. I forgot how much work a newborn baby is. Very tiring. Everyone is doing well. The little guy got to "watch" his 1st Yankees game tonight. I'm glad the boys put on a good showing.

I didn't get to see any of Monday night's game. I left the hospital a little before 9:30 and the game was in the bottom of the 8th. I turn it on and John Sterling is telling me that this is the outing that Yankee fans have been expecting from CC Sabathia. So I'm thinking to myself, sweet, they must be winning. Then the inning ends and they say it's 4-zip Tigers. Talk about a surprise. By the time I got home, the game was over. Jorge Posada killed the late rally with a DP. My father-in law told me that Posada must be the slowest guy on Earth since he couldn't beat that out. The radio call had me thinking the same thing.

How good did Phil Hughes look tonight? I was really impressed with his outing. His curve wasn't the greatest but it was good enough. He had a decent strike-to-ball ratio (58 strikes-41 balls) and his velocity was up there. I liked what I saw. It was awesome to see him do so well in his return. I'm so glad that the Yankees didn't give up on him after his rough start last season. Phil is so much better than that. For my money, he's better than Joba. Once their careers are all said-and-done, I think Phil will be the better of the two. If you can't tell, I'm a big Hughes guy, always have been. He was on tonight. I'm really glad the team broke through with some runs their in the 7th and got Phil the win.

I wish the Yankees would have more innings like they had tonight there in the 7th. They scored 10 runs on 6 hits, 5 of which were singles. I think one of the Yankees biggest problems in recent years is their penchant to try and hit a 5-run homer. Just keep the line moving with base hits and the runs will pile up. There's a reason why they've been so bad when it comes to hitting with RISP. Coming in to tonight's game the Yankees were dead last in the AL in batting average with RISP. Last year, the Yankees were 10th in the AL. My theory is that too many guys are looking longball. Just rip a single. That's all you gotta do. The rest will fall into place.

Hopefully, this win kind of rights the ship. An 11-0 shutout can do that to a ballclub.

Man, I'm tired. I'll be sleeping before my head hits the pillow.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie