Results tagged “philhughes”

The first playoff game at the new stadium was a happy affair as the Yankees defeated the Twins 7-2 on Wednesday night. C.C. Sabathia pitched well, striking out eight and allowing only two runs, one earned, over 6-2/3 innings. Sabathia only struggled in the third when he ran into trouble with two outs. With runners on second and third, Sabathia allowed a single to score a run and then Jorge Posada simply didn’t catch a Sabathia pitch allowing a second run and putting the Twins up 2-0.

    

The Yankees will face the hottest team in baseball, the Minnesota Twins, in the ALDS starting tonight. Minnesota came back from a three-game deficit with four games to play to tie Detroit and then beat them yesterday in a 12-inning playoff game to earn a trip to the Bronx.

• Yankees 6 Oakland 3: Today’s rain delayed the start of this game to almost 10pm and for awhile it looked like the Yankees had assumed the game was a rainout. Oakland jumped all over an inconsistent C.C. Sabathia for three runs in the first four innings, but Sabathia settled down and the Yankees battled back. Mark Teixeira belted a two-run homer in the fourth and the Yankees added two more runs to take a lead they would never relinquish. Phil Hughes came on in the eighth and pitched two perfect innings to get the first save of his career and put the Yankees 2-1/2 games ahead of idle Boston.

Despite being unable to beat the Red Sox this year (0-8 so far against them), the Yankees are only one game behind them. As they head into the All-Star Break, the Yankees are playing their best baseball of the season, something they will need to continue to do if they are going to bring playoff baseball back to the Bronx.

Texas 4 Yankees 2: It was a big night at the ballpark for the Yankees, but perhaps more for what happened off the field. Before the game New York announced that Chien-Ming Wang will return to the rotation tomorrow and Phil Hughes will head to the bullpen. On the field, the Yankees could not recover from a mediocre start from Andy Pettitte. Pettitte could not find command of his pitches during the game and he walked six and allowed three runs in the first; deficits the Yankees could not overcome. Their loss and the Red Sox win means it is all tied up at the top of the AL East.

• Yankees 11, Rangers 1: When Phil Hughes last pitched in Arlington, Texas, he had a no-hitter through 6 1/3 innings when he left with an injured hamstring. This time around, he allowed three hits and no runs in eight scoreless innings. Alex Rodriguez went 5-for-5 with four RBIs, and the Yankees, looking foolish in red Memorial Day caps, started a seven-game road trip off on the right foot. Johnny Damon had three runs scored and Kevin Cash tripled his hits total for the season by going 3-for-5. Joba Chamberlain will start Tuesday, but Brian Bruney is headed back to the disabled list.
• Mets 5, Nationals 2: Good thing Omar Minaya picked up Gary Sheffield. While Ryan Church alternates from being a punchless outfielder to injured, Sheffield hit a go-ahead three-run homer off Washington starter -- and Long Beach native -- John Lannan in the sixth inning. John Maine pitched six innings of one-run ball, striking out four and and walking three. Ramon Martinez and Carlos Beltran also had RBIs.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: No Messing Around in Texas"

• Mets 10, Pirates 1: A week ago, Mets fans couldn't stop fretting after a disastrous loss to the Phillies. Now their team is in first place and has won six straight games. John Maine pitched six innings of one-run ball and Jose Reyes had three hits and three RBIs. Sandy Alomar Sr. managed the team in lieu of Jerry Manuel, who was suspended for making contact with an umpire on Thursday. The Pirates stink, yes, but the Mets are rolling. The days of worrying about David Wright's clutch hitting -- foolish days to begin with -- are over. Now the Mets can worry about getting quality outings from their starters, their most legitimate concern.

Don’t blame the bullpen. They held the Mets in the game inning after inning, it was the offense that blew this one. Time after time, the Mets couldn’t get the big hit, no more so than the bottom of the ninth. David Murphy led off the inning with a triple, putting the team 90 feet from victory. But, David Wright struck out and after intentional walks to Delgado and Beltran, Ryan Church grounded into a force out at home. Ramon Castro struck out to end the inning and the Mets never threatened again.

But, Santana’s heroics almost went for naught as the Mets were kept off the scoreboard through the first four innings. Luckily, they broke through with a hit off a broken bat from Santana and a key triple from Jose Reyes that drove in three runs. The win and the Phillies’ loss puts New York 1-1/2 games back in the division, but the Brewers also won leaving the Mets a game up in the wild card with five games remaining in the season.

It remained that way as the Rangers failed to convert on two abbreviated 5-on-3 advantages and Pittsburgh kept killing the clock. But, a beautiful pass from Scott Gomez to Ryan Callahan at 12:07 of the second brought the Rangers to within 1 and Jaromir Jagr tied things up less than a minute later. Suddenly, it was 3-3 and the Garden was rocking and the Rangers were a deflection off the goalpost away from taking the lead. And that is where Hollweg committed an asinine penalty, taking a boarding call in the offensive zone. Pittsburgh converted on the ensuing power play and added another goal early in the third period to put away the game and leave the Rangers’ season on life support.

And it was that call to the bullpen that was the Mets’ undoing. Willie Randolph went to Aaron Heilman who walked the bases loaded and gave up a grand slam to Felipe Lopez. The Nationals added three more runs in the seventh off of Jorge Sosa. The Mets mounted a rally in the ninth with Marlon Anderson homering and the first two runners reaching base, but they could not get the tying run out of the on-deck circle.

• Rangers 5 Devils 3: This was an epic clash to end the series. After the Devils jumped out to a 1-0 lead, the Rangers scored the next four goals, taking control of the game and leading 4-1 with about fifteen minutes left in the second period.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: The Rangers Win The War"

The game was a war, with both teams hitting legally and at times illegally, though the refs seemed interested in calling anything. Martin Brodeur and Ryan Callahan had a huge collision in the third period, which Brodeur was lucky to escape from without injury. Sean Avery scored a goal and pissed people off while Brandon Dubinsky had two goals for New York. The teams get two nights off to heal up for Game 4 on Wednesday night.

• Rangers 3, Islanders 0: They don't know where they'll be seeded, but the Rangers are going back to the playoffs. Jaromir Jagr scored the first two goals in the first period, and the team never looked back. Even though many fans saw this as a foregone conclusion for the last several weeks, the Rangers weren't taking any chances. “It’s never been like that before,” Jagr said. “You don’t realize when the coach is telling you early in the season every game is so important. Now you can see that. You can make it by one point or two points. That’s huge.” They still have an outside chance of catching the Devils and obtaining home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but don't count on it.
• Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2: Phil Hughes threw six innings and allowed two runs. He left trailing, but Bobby Abreu's go-ahead single knocked in the last of the Yankees' three runs as they took the rubber game of a season-opening three-game series. The Yankees have scored only eight runs in three games, but they've won two of them. Hughes looked sharp. Both the runs were soft, and he struck out four and walked one. The Devil Rays come to town for a four-game set starting Friday.

Joe Girardi made the goal clear from his introductory press conference donning the number 27 to represent the quest for a 27th title. But, despite their tremendous resources and talent, this Yankees’ team is further away from winning a title than any in recent memory because of the question surrounding the starting pitching.

• Islanders 4 Rangers 3 (Shootout): This was not a game for fans of goaltenders. Henrik Lundqvist was terrible, Wade Dubielewicz was too but better when it counted and the Islanders prevailed in a sloppy game.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: A Big Win For The Islanders"

For all the noise of this Yankees offseason, as far as the team on the field goes, all it amounted to was the status quo. Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera are all back -- and richer. Young pitchers Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and center fielder Melky Cabrera didn't go to the Twins for Johan Santana. The 2008 Yankees will be a slightly older albeit considerably more expensive version of the 2007 team. And most fans are fine with that.

The big sports news of the day isn't the Super Bowl. It's the probable Johan Santana trade that the Mets and Twins agreed to yesterday. And from the reaction of the local papers and sportswriters, it seems like the Mets pulled a fast one on the rubes from Minnesota. If the Mets can sign Santana to a contract extension, it's likely that he will become the highest paid pitcher in baseball, surpassing Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants. It's believed that Santana and his agent Peter Greenberg are looking for a 6 or 7-year deal in the range of $20-25 million per year.

If Barry Melrose ever goes to Newark, he probably won't be getting a warm reception. Melrose, a hockey analyst for ESPN and a former player and manager, said some disparaging words about the city of Newark when talking about the new Devils arena on his webcast last week. Melrose said, "It looks great on the inside but don't go outside, especially if you got a wallet or anything else because the area around the building...

The reports of George Steinbrenner’s demise may have been exaggerated. In an interview with Ian O'Connor, Steinbrenner showed the fire that longtime fans of the Yankees are used to. While it wasn’t punching out someone in an elevator, this was a classic motivational ploy from the Steinbrenner textbook - win or the manager is gone. Of course all of this ignores the fact that the Yankees are lucky to have even made the playoffs. Teams...

However, they still trail 2 games to 1 and Joe Torre’s neck is still on the line. Torre has done the right thing and announced that Chien-Ming Wang will start tonight on short rest. Wang gives the Yankees a better chance of wining than Mike Mussina, but keeping Cleveland in check will not be easy. To make matters worse, Joba pitched two innings Sunday and Mo one, so their availability in a close game is in question. What happens later tonight is impossible to predict, but at least we have another game to watch.

How this team breaks out of these doldrums is hard to imagine. The Mets only got one runner to second base in Thursday’s loss and had only four base runners in the game. The offense hasn’t scored in fourteen innings and you already know about the bullpen. The good news, if there is any, is that Florida is coming to town this weekend. The Mets took three-of-four from them on the road last weekend, so they know how to beat the Marlins and now they have to.

The Wizard of Oz has really been updated for current times. Now, in addition to Toto, Dorothy carries a bag from the 5th Avenue Apple Store with her. At least that's what Dorothy, played by Ian Kennedy, did as part of the Yankees' rookie hazing tradition where green players dress up in crazy outfits. We expect this version of The Wizard of Oz to come to an off, off, off Broadway location in the post-season.