NEW YORK – There was a time no too long ago (about a month) when the question was whether the Yankees had anyone capable of pitching the late innings to get the ball to Mariano Rivera.
New York’s bullpen was in a severe slump. Each game became an edition of “Bullpen Roulette”, with Joe Girardi needing to keep a bottle of Pepto Bismol to get him through the innings when his starter would leave the game.
Along the way, as the bullpen began to show improvement, the team found a pitcher who was able to get outs consistently, quickly and in such dominant fashion that he has been able to add an additional boost to a career that appear to be on the path to reinvigoration.
Welcome Phil Hughes.
Or, as he was once dubbed, “The Phranchise”.
It has been an incredible turnaround. No one could have foreseen this taking place. After starting the season in the minors as a means to get his innings up, he was back up to the club when Chien-Ming Wang’s struggles found himself on the DL. Hughes struggled again to be acclimated, but slowly you began to see some better results.
Wang’s return to the rotation meant Hughes was going to be shifted to the bullpen for the first time in his career, but not before leaving without a memorable eight-inning, shutout performance.
It had been a long road back to the majors for the Yankees young right-hander, who has seen his career range from “phenom” to “injury riddled” to “ineffective and inconsistent” over the last two-plus seasons.
We have seen his highs and his lows since he came up to the club in April 2007. There was the game he pitched in Texas where he carried a no-hitter into the bottom of the seventh inning before attempting to snap off another devastating breaking ball (one of many he had that night) and wound up severely injuring his hamstring in the process, missing nearly four months.
He returned. In Game 3 of the Division Series, when Roger Clemens showed the world his career clock had reached midnight in the third inning, the ball was given to Hughes with the Yankees season hanging by a thread. What he delivered was a memorable performance and provided a glimpse of what the future held in his right arm.
His name was mentioned in trade discussions for Johan Santana, but General Manager Brian Cashman never blinked to trade the then 21-year old. He looked at him as part of the team’s new future and a cheaper and possibly more effective alternative.
In 2008, he was given a spot in the rotation without challenge. Unfortunately, he was never ready to assume the position.
He struggled from the outset. For a pitched touted for his control, Hughes now could not find the strike zone and had base runners on constantly. Last season, he amassed 58 runners in only 34 innings pitched and putrid 6.62 ERA. His velocity, only ranging between 93 and 95, was now barely registering 90 MPH on the guns.
Something was wrong.
It turns out he was pitching injured.
In an April start against the White Sox, he was forced to leave the game after two innings due to a rain delay. What the team did not know was the he had fractured a rib that same night sneezing. Hughes made his next start against Detroit and struggled again. Manager Joe Girardi insisted he was going to stick with him in the rotation, only to find out hours later he was going to be put on the DL and did not return until late September when the Yankees season was all but over.
Hughes has been hardened by failure, and in many ways is the antithesis of his other young teammate Joba Chamberlain. They have separate personalities. While Joba is open with his emotions on the field, Hughes is stoic, almost cerebral in a sense. Unfortunately, that does not make the highlights and plays on the emotions of a crowd. Only injuries that have held him back from unleashing his full potential.
Moving to the bullpen was only to serve as a temporary pit stop on his road to being a future Yankees starter as early as next season. He needed to build up his innings count to allow him to be a starter, but the team had a need for him out of the bullpen.
After being placed in several one and two-inning stints, it slowly became apparent that Hughes was pitching better out of the pen than he was as a starter. Problem was that he was not being used as a “real reliever”. Simply put, Girardi was placing him in low leverage situations that allowed him to be successful with a margin of error. Most relievers can manufacture enough guile and moxie to pitch an inning when their team is winning or losing by three or four runs. But how about having the ball with your team leading or trailing by a run?
For Hughes, it didn’t matter. Slowly, he began to work his way up Girardi’s Trust List and his first real “big moment” came when he pitched a hitless, scoreless 1 1/3 innings at Citi Field in the Yankees 4-2 win over the Mets.
He came into the game with two outs in the sixth inning (it was his first time entering in the middle of an inning) and on one pitch, induced a fly out. He came back the next inning and shut the team from Queens down.
After another scoreless inning on Tuesday against Seattle where he only needed nine pitches, the calls came for him to the main bridge to Mariano Rivera, as Brian Bruney was slowly to regain his early season form after coming off two stints on the DL with an elbow injury.
Bruney pitched the opposite of Hughes that night by giving up two runs that wound up tying the game. Girardi initially resisted giving Hughes the ball, placing his faith in Bruney, but the results on the field were all one needed to look.
Pitching back-to-back days for the first time as a reliever this weekend against Toronto was no problem for the Yankees new bullpen savior. It was another test that he succeeded brilliantly.
He has been a different pitcher. No longer nibbling and trying to trick hitters. The 92 MPH on the gun now see him reaching back and firing darts at 95 and 96 MPH on the corners, giving hitters no chance with the ability to drop in his 12 to 6 curveball at any moment to make you look foolish.
The current numbers are eye popping:
14 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 16 K, 1.26 ERA, 0.63 WHIP
There was nothing to indicate that he would be THIS dominant as a relief pitcher. Now, you no longer hear the “Joba should be in the pen” discussion that has been going on over the past three months this season during the times in which he hasn’t pitched well (case in point, this past Sunday).
The Yankees have their guy for right now. Projection wise, he is not going to be there forever. However, the team needs him in this role and Hughes has taken a liking to it. When he was asked several weeks ago if he would rather be pitching out of the bullpen or starting in AAA-Scranton, he said unquestionably that he wanted to stay here even if all he had to do was be the teams bag boy.
He is undaunted out there on the mound now. Since he’s been placed there, the trio of Hughes, Phil Coke and Alfredo Aceves has pitched like the best pen in baseball and the numbers clearly show it.
Whether it be starting or relieving, this much is clear, Phil Hughes has arrived in the big leagues and he is not leaving anytime soon.
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