MLB

YOUNG GUNS ARE KILLIN’ YANKS

BOSTON – Right now the Yankees’ biggest problem is not that a Red Sox jersey was buried at the new stadium. It is that Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy are doing a pretty fair imitation of Tyler Clippard and Matt DeSalvo.

The Yanks ordered an excavation and the jersey issue was resolved with a jackhammer and some muscle. Hughes and Kennedy – at least the Hughes and Kennedy the Yanks had envisioned – are proving tougher to unearth. Right now both appear lost, either afraid of the strike zone or afraid of the results should they throw the ball over the plate consistently.

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The duo has combined to permit 19 earned runs and 14 walks in 161/3 innings. We keep wondering what would motivate the Yanks to transfer Joba Chamberlain out of the pen, where he is dominating. Now we might see the condition that forces the maneuver: His Generation Trey partners being unable to handle these responsibilities.

For now the other options are just not appetizing. Kei Igawa and Darrell Rasner are the best Triple-A possibilities at the moment, which explains why there will be plenty of leash for Hughes and Kennedy. Plus Yankees management already can see the season is going to be a tightrope walk with Mike Mussina and his 84-mph fastball.

Can they really survive if both Hughes and Kennedy are this unreliable, too?

The Yankees, after all, built more than their long-range plans around these youngsters. The 2008 season revolves around them, as well. The strategy was to protect their arms by limiting their innings. But that can’t be because they are failing to get beyond three or four innings with regularity.

The thought on Hughes was that he was precocious. At 21, the majors’ youngest pitcher has a maturity about him to go along with a fine blend of pitches. Nevertheless, maybe he is just a kid who needs more seasoning in the minors.

He disputed that last night after facing 15 batters and retiring just six in an 8-5 triumph that gave the Red Sox the rubber match of this series. In his last two starts, Hughes has expended 152 pitches to register 15 outs. That is worse economy than the nation is suffering through right now.

For Hughes, though, the majors are “the best forum” to solve his command issues. He said the minors would just be deceiving at this point, allowing him to thrive without his best stuff. No, Hughes insists, he needs to remedy himself here. He says this is all about him losing fastball control, which is forcing him to work from behind way too much.

“I know I have good stuff and it is there,” Hughes said. “It is about getting back my command of the strike zone, and I know it will come back.”

Kennedy, who is having similar issues, gets the start tonight against Tampa Bay, and so far his 2008 line is 122 pitches to get 16 outs. His margin for error is smaller than Hughes’.

Maybe this is all just a tiny sample, which is Hughes’ claim. Or maybe the Yanks just conned themselves that they possessed the magic elixir to have their young pitchers skip right over the growing pain phase. Joe Girardi has mentioned many times that the success by Hughes and Kennedy in the late-season crucible last year encouraged him that the duo was fully ready.

The Yanks also believed that their offense would provide cover. That has not occurred early as many of the Yankee veteran hitters have struggled early, none worse than Robinson Cano, though Alex Rodriguez is beginning to give him a challenge. And now the Yankees have a catching crisis with Jose Molina (hamstring) joining Jorge Posada (shoulder) on the injury list.

The same type of injury/offensive malaise struck the Yankees at the beginning of last season, as well. That was combined with a series of rotation maladies that forced the premature pushing of Clippard and DeSalvo and Chase Wright and Rasner into starting jobs. The pedigree of Hughes and Kennedy is far better, and the Yanks had imagined the results would reflect that.

That hasn’t happened yet in 2008. Only the whole season rests on a reversal.

joel.sherman@nypost.com