Positive vibes flowed from almost every locker inside the Yankees clubhouse last night — and for good reason.
They erased an early five-run deficit. Joba Chamberlain used his beefy body to save a big run at the plate. Bartolo Colon provided three scoreless innings. Jorge Posada’s ninth-inning homer sent the game into extra innings. And Nick Swisher’s sacrifice fly beat the Orioles, putting the Yankees (7-4) alone in first place in the AL East.
Yet, smothering the 6-5, 10-inning victory in front of 40,517 at Yankee Stadium was Phil Hughes’ latest downer — a start that only deepened the concern about the right-hander, who won 18 games a year ago when he was an All Star, but has been awful this season.
“It’s frustrating. I feel like I am not bringing anything to the table,” said Hughes, who gave up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings, but avoided his second loss in three starts. “It’s not going the way I want it to go right now.”
A pedestrian fastball again was the reason Hughes got spanked. Though manager Joe Girardi and catcher Russell Martin believed they saw improvement in Hughes’ velocity, it wasn’t that much of a difference. His four-seam heater averaged 89 mph and topped out at 91. More importantly, of the 46 fastballs he threw, just two produced swings and misses.
“It was a little bit better in the first and second innings but it’s still not right,” Girardi said of Hughes’ fastball. “Our job is to get him right.”
Three starts into the season, Hughes is 0-1 with a 13.94 ERA. In 10 1/3 innings, he has allowed 19 hits and four walks.
On most teams five runs in less than five frames is a recipe for defeat. But the Yankees scored one in the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh and tied the score in the ninth on Posada’s fifth homer in seven hits this season.
With Mark Teixeira on third, Alex Rodriguez on second and no outs in the 10th against Mike Gonzalez, Nick Swisher watched the lefty work to Robinson Cano.
“All fastballs,” Swisher said of Gonzalez, who retired Cano on a sinking liner to short.
The first pitch to Swisher was a curveball, and so was the second.
“Breaking ball up in the zone and I was able to hit it deep enough,” Swisher said of the fly ball to right fielder Nick Markakis that scored Teixeira easily with the game-winning run. “I felt confident as soon as the ball hit the bat.”
The Yankees’ confidence in Colon builds every time he surfaces from the bullpen. He provided three scoreless innings and gave the Yankees a chance to come back.
“We can always come back,” Colon said. “We never give up. We always have a chance.”
Last night’s chance was partly produced by Chamberlain blocking the plate against pinch-runner Felix Pie in the eighth inning. With Pie on third, Chamberlain uncorked a pitch that got by Martin. Fortunately the ball hit the wall behind the plate and came back quickly to the catcher. His toss to Chamberlain, who pushed Pie’s leg away from the plate with his foot, was in time to get Pie and keep the deficit at 5-4.
“It gave us a chance to win,” said Chamberlain, who reached 98 mph with his fastball against Brian Roberts in the ninth.
Hughes hasn’t given the Yankees a chance to do more than grimace. He wasn’t supposed to be among the puzzles in the rotation, but he has morphed into the biggest.
“It’s the same old stuff, it is what it is,” said Hughes, who could be skipped a start because the Yankees have two days off next week. “I feel confident it will turn around.”