Kuzul

Phil Hughes had another great start, allowing two runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out seven in seven strong innings. He basically did it all with two pitches tonight; the four-seamer and his cutter. He threw 101 pitches tonight (70 strikes), and according to the PitchFX data, 89 of those pitches were either four-seamers (60) or cutters (29). He also threw nine curves, one change and one two-seamer. With the way those two pitches were working for him tonight, you can’t really blame him. The velocity of his four-seamer continues to rise. Today he topped out at 96 mph and averaged 94.29. He also had great command and spent most of the night painting the corners. With each start Hughes is showing exactly why the Yankees went with him over Joba Chamberlain for that fifth starter spot. He’s showing great composure, great command and a solid arsenal of pitches. With the win Hughes improves to 4-0, with an ERA of just 1.69.

Over the first three innings Josh Beckett matched zeros with Hughes, and was dominating in the process. He retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, and struck out six of them. He got into his first jam of the game in the fourth when the Yankees put the first two men on, but he retired the next two men he faced and was one pitch away from working out of it when he was ahead 0-2 on Nick Swisher. Swisher worked the count back to 2-2, and then clubbed a hanging curveball just over the wall in center for a three-run homer. Swish is now 10 for his last 24 with four HR and nine RBI.

Boston got one back in the bottom half on a sac fly by David Ortiz, and that’s how the score would stay until the sixth.

The top of the sixth was an interesting inning to say the least, one I had to rewatch after the game. Josh Beckett imploded, allowing five runs on four hits, two walks and two hit batters. Alex Rodriguez started the inning with a double. Robinson Cano then hit on the knee with a fastball to put two on and knocked Cano out of the game. Beckett then got his signals crossed and fired a fastball off Jason Varitek’s forearm and thigh, allowing the runners to move up. Varitek would eventually have to leave the game. Following a strikeout of Swisher, Brett Gardner was intentionally walked to setup a force at any base. Beckett then walked Francisco Cervelli to force in a run. Randy Winn was next and knocked in a run with an RBI single. Beckett then threw his first pitch to Derek Jeter into his ribs to force in another run. A Marcus Thames infield RBI single, a Mark Teixeira RBI single and a sac fly by A-Rod finished off the rally. The Yankees would eventually send 11 men to the plate.

The Yankees were not too pleased with Beckett’s actions on the mound. Many Yankees, including CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez, were shown yelling at Beckett on the mound. Normally, I’d never suggest that a pitcher was trying to hit people even though it would force in a run, but Beckett isn’t your normal pitcher. And based on some of his reactions on the mound it wouldn’t really surprise me. After he hit Cano and saw him hunched over in pain the YES cameras caught Beckett cracking a smile. Then, prior to walking Cervelli on a 3-2 fastball under his chin, Cervelli had called timeout which appeared to piss Beckett off. Cervelli’s reaction made me think he thought Becket was sending a message. Beckett was shown smiling again after hitting Jeter. To me, it looked like a guy who knew he had nothing tonight, didn’t care about the game or his team and just decided to take his frustrations out on the Yankees hitters. It’s still hard to imagine a Major League pitcher giving away runs because he’s angry or frustrated, but with Beckett, you never know.