The Yankees officially have a pitching crisis.
The Red Sox own the atrocious record, but with Phil Hughes placed on the disabled list yesterday with a “dead arm” and another young starter not able to make it out of the fifth inning, the first-place Yankees are in deep trouble.
The rotation now includes Bartolo Colon, rookie Ivan Nova, who lost 5-3 to the Rangers last night at frigid Yankee Stadium, and Freddy Garcia, who goes today against Texas.
If there is any more slippage, you’re pretty much looking at a “dead rotation.”
A.J. Burnett is 3-0. The rest of the starters have combined for one win. Only CC Sabathia, in one start, has gone at least seven innings.
The Yankees never expected Hughes to regress to such a degree, so his trouble is a huge blow. The Hughes dilemma continues the disturbing trend of the Yankees unknowingly sabotaging the progress of their young pitchers.
The Yankees have gone through numerous procedures to try to keep their young arms healthy through the years: innings limits, pitch-count limits and everything else under the new-age pitching sun. The Rangers, on the other hand, have taken more of the old-school approach with their pitchers.
Young Rangers left-hander Matt Harrison, 25, induced six double plays — tying an AL record and setting a Yankees mark — as he improved to 3-0. Derek Holland, 24, goes today for the Rangers and Alexi Ogando, 27, pitches tomorrow. They are a combined 7-0 with a 1.14 ERA.
Evidently, Nolan Ryan knows what he is doing with his young arms.
The AL champions own the best ERA in baseball at 2.55. The Yankees are 11th in the AL and 23rd overall at 4.75, while the Red Sox are dead last in the major leagues at 6.79.
The most disturbing aspect of the Hughes situation is that the Yankees have no clue what is wrong and what is causing his massive velocity woes. By putting Hughes on the DL, they buy time.
The first thing the Yankees need to do is to convince Hughes to get rid of his cutter. Then he has to use his legs more in his delivery.
A “dead” cutter was blasted for a two-run home run by Nick Markakis on Thursday night and Hughes’ reliance on that pitch may have created his arm fatigue. Since the All-Star Game last season, Hughes has struggled mightily.
Doing more long-toss is the way to go for Hughes. Hughes said last night that by going on the DL he can get on a program to increase his long-toss without having the pressure of saving his arm for his next start.
Hughes, 24, cannot touch the velocity he had last season and he can’t maintain what little velocity he does reach, around 90-91 mph. That is the biggest red flag, manager Joe Girardi said.
“He’s trying to figure out what is going on,” Girardi added. “He was on the same program that he was on the year before. He’s doing the same stuff that he did and it’s just not coming out the same.”
The Yankees aren’t saying it, but this could be the first sign of significant arm trouble. After all, the Yankees thought Pedro Feliciano’s left shoulder would be good for two more years.
Hughes said he doesn’t feel pain, but admitted he has been quickly fatigued.
“There’s nothing that tells us that there is an injury,” Girardi said, which is kind of an interesting comment considering Hughes is on the disabled list. A “dead arm” usually is a short-period situation, a week to 10 days, but the fact Hughes can’t maintain velocity is a huge red flag.
“It’s frustrating,” Hughes said. “I feel like I have a lot of years left in me. I just feel fatigued, as a starter you can’t feel that way.”
No, you can’t. As a result, the Yankees have a pitching crisis in mid-April.
kevin.kernan@nypost.com