Bronx, N.Y., July 1, 2012 – A good, though much too hot, time was had by all in the Bronx Sunday afternoon, as the Yankees celebrated their annual Old Timers Game. Trainer Gene Monahan was among a small group of first timers to the ceremony that included righthander Tanyon Sturtze, lefty Sterling Hitchcock, and catcher Matt Nokes, as 47 veteran ex-players and five widows were feted by a lively though fried crowd that showered all the love they could upon them.

The intros were concluded with the arrival of six Hall of Famers via covered golf cart, with Yankee royalty Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra never emerging from their shaded conveyance as the faithful cheered. In the game that followed the Clippers used a five-run, eight-hit rally to beat the Bombers 6-2 in three sizzling frames.

Perhaps taken aback at the legendary players who had preceded him to the field of play, or the stifling heat of the afternoon sun, Phil Hughes was ineffective starting the regular game that followed, surrendering an Alejandro de Aza double and Kevin Youkilis single in his first six pitches, with Youkilis advancing to second on DeWayne Wise’s late attempt to catch de Aza at the plate. Once a fielder’s choice grounder moved the new ChiSox third sacker to third, Derek Jeter’s dive to the hole to smother a grounder from his infield-in position seemed to save the day, but Alex Rios smacked the next pitch to left for a single and a 2-0 Chicago lead.

Suddenly the love had gone away, and disquieting rumbles circled the crowd. What the fans were reacting to was an unfortunate outing Hughes had a week and a half ago, where he was reached for four home runs in four-plus frames, but as play over the next eight innings would prove, they couldn’t have been more wrong. Not only had Phil been victimized by the dingers, his work was dominated by the fly ball that day, including using rainbows to the outfield to garner five of his 13 outs. On June 20, Phil was almost exclusively a fly-ball pitcher, one who would do well, except on the days the opposition would square up too many of his fastballs and curves.

But Sunday’s two-run first-inning rally was not more of the same, but rather a couple of line drives and a ground ball through the infield. He used five strike outs to pitch around a second-inning walk and two hits in the third, the last of which was the one ball that resembled what befell him against Atlanta, a majestic Rios drive that caromed off the left center field wall. But Wise was quick on the retrieve, holding a runner at third, and when A.J. Piezynski popped out to the infield, the last true Hughes challenge had passed. Phil struck out eight White Sox batters on the afternoon, and retired another six on harmless pop-ups. What he did not do was coax fly balls from most batters, not retiring a visitor in that manner until de Aza lifted a harmless fly to center leading off the fifth inning.

By that time, Phil was in the lead, not comfortably perhaps, but as big a lead as he would get on the day, on a pair of two-run home runs, one by Eric Chavez in the second, then another by Robinson Cano in the third. The Yanks did not go quietly thereafter, reaching White Sox starter Gavin Floyd for a single and walk in the third, another hit in the fourth, two more in the fifth, and a leadoff walk in the sixth. By then Floyd had labored through 117 steamy pitches, and following a Derek Jeter ground out, he ceded the pitching to Levson Septimo. This young southpaw and righty Nate Jones held the Yanks at bay from that point, but Hughes was well into the process of retiring 16 of 17 through the eighth inning, and the visitors were thwarted.

There was nothing fancy about the Hughes approach, low nineties fastballs mixed with curves and an occasional change of pace. The 70/32 strikes/balls ratio exceeded the hoped for 2 to 1, and he pounded 19 first-pitch strikes to 31 batters. He allowed six hits, just three in innings two through eight, walked none, and notched six of his eight K’s swinging. The Yankee offense was pretty much what you would expect. They failed to score after loading the bases with no one out in the first inning, but came storming back on two-run home runs in back-to-back frames. They reached Floyd for eight hits, and waited him out for five walks.

As for yet another home-run-fueled victory, one of the bigger days filled with Yankee ahievements on July 1 involves Joe DiMaggio, who made history by hitting safely in both games of a double header against the Red Sox on this day in 1941, tying him with Wee Willie Keeler for having hits in 44 straight games; after another 12 games he would have his 56-game streak. The Yanks, who would win the World Series that year, swept the two games, but their streak of having homered in 25 consecutive games ended in game one. The plethora of home runs in the “House That Ruth Built” up to that point seemed to have caused them no harm, and the same strategy in George Steinbrenner’s house can be expected to do the same.

And again regarding Hughes, behind the numbers there was a quirky aspect: Phil threw exactly 11 strikes in each of the first three innings, and in four innings overall. With the first-place Yankees suddenly backed into a corner where just three of their current starters will be called on to carry them going forward, we can only hope that each develops a personality, a strength, and a strategy to succeed on the big stage, a stage as big as Stonehenge. It’s been almost 30 years since Spinal Tap hilariously came up a bit short on staging Stonehenge, and at the same time exhibiting the strange power of the number “11.”

Phil Tufnel, anyone?

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!