Today’s matchup was interesting, because it gave the pitchers for the Yankees some looks at real upper level big league talent. Some of them fared better than others (which makes sense, as a few of them spent the whole year at AA).
Phil Hughes – 2.2IP, 3H, 2R, 0BB, 2K, 0HR, 3AO, 3GO
A good outing, throwing mostly fastballs with a few curves and flashing his developing change-up quite a bit. The change was thrown mostly out of the zone. Not many well-hit balls, the first of those three hits was a bloop to leadoff the game and the last was a very Jeterian dribbler up the middle.
There was one hit batsmen–Curtis Granderson. Like the first outing, it grazed his uniform on the way in, so it’s just Hughes adjusting to pitching inside more.
Hughes’ strikeouts were: Adam Dunn looking on a nice curve, and David Wright frozen on a fastball that hit the outside corner.
No walks and 50/50 groundballs makes me happy. He threw about 45 pitches at the time he was taken out.
Phil Coke – 2.1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 2K, 0HR, 2GO, 3AO
Coke came in with one runner on base (Jeter), gave up a groundball single to Chipper Jones (I’ve heard he is a pretty good baseball player!) and then pitched in shutdown mode.
He had a lot of success with his fastball, throwing it by Dunn and Ryan Braun to get those strikeouts (both swinging).
The flyballs he got towards the end were hit pretty well, but his time was up so it was safe.
Eric Hacker - 0.0IP, 2H, 4R, 3ER, 2BB, 0K, 2WP
Eric Hacker’s control was off and he had a very poor outing. He faced six batters, all of whom got on base. However, it’s important to remember that the highest level of pro-ball he’s pitched is AA.
He at one point induced a groundball that should have turned a doubleplay, except Angel Berroa fell on it and instead no outs were recorded. That would have made his outing merely bad instead of really bad.
He flashed a pickoff move a few times that seemed pretty good.
Michael Dunn – 1.2IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 3K, 0GO, 2AO
Dunn came in with two inherited runners, and allowed neither to score as he induced a shallow fly ball and then struck out both Granderson and Pedroia.
In his clean inning he walked Jeter, got DeRosa to fly out (it was a very long fly) and struck out David Wright. And then he hit his pitch ceiling and was lifted.
David Robertson – 1.1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K, 1GO, 1AO
Robertson inherited a runner, who he stranded by striking out Adam Dunn throwing only fastballs. Robertson’s task today was to start throwing his curve, but he was still mostly relying on the fastball. His curve didn’t have the bite or placement that you usually expect but it’s early.
Jose Veras – 1IP, 0H, 0R, 1BB, 2K
Veras pitched a Veras inning, except he only walked one and didn’t hit anybody. Pedroia got caught stealing, so he didn’t get a chance to walk or hit anyone before recording the third out.
