Hughes ’em and abuse ’em

Phil Hughes was absolutely filthy in the Yankees’ 3-1 victory over the A’s Wednesday night/Thursday morning. The 23-year-old retired 20 straight batters, fanned a career-high 10, flirted with a no-hitter and threw 101 pitches — 70 for strikes. Hughes retired nine batters via fly outs and three on groundouts to go with the 10 Ks. However, the young righty had his no-no thwarted by Eric Chavez (whom I thought had a broken back) leading off the eighth. It was a BS hit too; Chavez hit a bullet back to Phil and it caromed off his forearm. Hughes couldn’t find the ball and by the time he located it Chavez was at first. Talk about some tough luck.

On the brightside, the Yanks got the win so I’ll take it. A win is a win, unless it’s a Winn.

Phil:

"It was a first-pitch fastball away. He hit it back up the middle; it hit off my forearm and it was angled at a way that I thought it went straight up but it didn’t…obviously it’s not the way you want to break up a no-hitter but that’s the way it goes.I’m frustrated, but it’s so hard to do. It’s the game…It’s (forearm) fine, it’s fine; just a little red mark.I knew after the fourth or fifth…you’re definitely aware."

Girardi:

"That’s as good as it gets, he was ahead in the count all night…it was a brilliant performance…He was challenging guys and going right at them…It’s unfortunate he didn’t see where it bounced. It hit him in the left forearm, he’s fine.When he came up last year, he threw some good games for us."

I was surprised the no-hitter lasted that long, as Hughes’ stuff was pretty much down the middle at 92 mph all night. You’d think hitters would wise-up and look for something down the middle, especially since he didn’t throw any changeups. Hughes was pitching well last night/this morning…keep in mind he’s the team’s FIFTH STARTER and only 23!!!

Plus, Damon got tossed from the Tigers game. That’s always fun.

The Yanks needed Hughes to be on, as Sheets threw a pretty good game himself. Sheets went six innings and gave up two runs on four hits while walking three and punching out four.

Girardi:

"Ben Sheets threw a good game too. Ben Sheets has been a dominate starter in the NL for a long time. It was a great pitching matchup; it’s two guys that have power fastballs and very good curveballs…both guys threw a great game."

New York’s offense was non-existent for the most part, sans consecutive triples from A-Rod and Cano. The highest-scoring offense in the majors went 2-for-10 with RISP and stranded eight runners.

Brett Gardner on the team:

"We’re playing great,thing’s have been going our way. Our starters have been doing well, our bullpen’s been great, we’ve been finding ways to score runs. Tonight we only scored a few but it turns out we got a great pitching performance from Phil and everything worked out."

Gardner is right. Check out how dirty the rotation was the last time through. If they can keep something slightly like that going the Yanks will coast. There’s no chance they keep up that level of pitching, but as long as they come close it’s number 28.

I’m not sure what Girardi was thinking with the runners going in the first inning. It seemed kind of greedy, especially with A-Rod on deck. But the A-Rod and Cano back-to-back triples in the fourth were epic.

I’m glad the Yanks were playing a bush-league lineup like Oakland’s because the bullpen really shit the bed. Joba and Mo didn’t look like themselves, and had it been a real team the outcome might have been a lot different. I guess there were too many players out late yesterday celebrating 4/20. But Mo did rally to get his sixth save in as many chances, so you can’t complain.

Quick Notes:The Yanks are now 11-3 and tied the 1926 team’s franchise-record by winning their first five series of the year…The club also extended its winning streak to six games and has held the opposition to three runs or fewer in each of those wins, outscoring them 33-12. They’ll go for their second straight sweep tomorrow afternoon with CC on the hill against Dallas Braden…The Yanks have held opponents to five or fewer runs in each of the last 10 games…Since A-Rod returned from the DL in May of last year, the Yanks are 112-51 (including postseason, which is best in Majors) and have scored 916…The Yanks are 9-0 this season when leading after six innings, and are 80-2 in such situations since 2009 (Best record in majors)…Jeet is sitting on 440 career doubles and needs two to tie Hitman for third place on Yanks list…Mo has 1,012 career Ks and needs two to tie Rocket for 10th place in franchise history…Yanks are 248-217 all-time vs. Oakland (including: 112-119 at OAK)…NYY has won 14 of the last 17 games against the A’s…The World Champion Bronx Bombers will visit the White House on Monday.