Phillip Hughes good, Yankees offense bad
One good thing about shelling out the $89.95 for MLB.TV is I get to watch every Yankee game, including tonight’s game that featured the major league debut of Yankee 20-year-old phenom Phil Hughes.
While the outcome of the game was certainly not a good one (another Yanks loss, this time a 6-0 at the hands of the Blue Jays, increasing their current losing streak to a horrid 6 games in the process) but the performance by Hughes was certainly something positive.
The young righthander struggled in the first inning, but that was understandable considering the circumstances. Think about it, if you were 20-years-old and had the fate of the greatest team in the history of baseball relying on your right arm for the next 10-15 years you’d probably give up a couple runs in your first start too.
From what I saw from Hughes, he deserves all the hype. He had a nice fastball, and change-up, which he often threw in back-to-back pitches (not seen too often by most established major leaguers), but what he didn’t deserve was the lack of run support he got from the Yankee offense.
How does a lineup as potent as this one get shutout? That should never happen. Especially by the Blue Jays. Maybe the Yanks are tired, and that’s why they couldn’t muster any run support for Hughes. But one thing’s for sure, management needs to keep the young guy up with the ball club and not send him down to the minors.
Yeah he’s only 20, and yeah he lost his first game, but by staying up in The Show, Hughes will learn how to pitch against big leaguers, which will do nothing but benefit him and the Yankees in the long run.
Besides, I can pretty much guarantee that his teammates will give him more than zero runs in his next start.
So, here’s my plea to Cashman and the gang. Keep Hughes around, not only is he going to improve your depleted pitching staff, but with him around none of us Yankee fans will have to suffer through starts from guys like Jeff Karstens and Chase Wright any more.