Hughes gets 10th win, Yanks snap skid 
BRONX – Do not ask Phil Hughes about possibly making the American League All Star team.
It is not a topic he will discuss for any great length, except to say that it would be an honor if selected by his manager, who happens to be Joe Girardi.
The site of the midsummer classic, Angel Stadium in Anaheim was ten miles from where he grew up in Santa Ana. If he continues to pitch the way he has this season, he will definitely find his way there in July.
Hughes bested Mike Pelfrey to notch his tenth win of the year to tie the American League lead with the Rays David Price against one loss to help the Yankees snap a three game losing skid in front of 49,073 at Yankee Stadium in a 5-3 victory over the Mets.
It was a game where he did not have his best stuff early, but despite a slow start, he found his groove, proceeding to shut down the Mets offense.
Jose Reyes drove Hughes’ second pitch of the game into the right field seats for a leadoff homerun that stunned the Stadium crowd while Mets fans made their presence known.
Coming into the game at 9-1 and 2.39 ERA, Mike Pelfrey looked to improve on those numbers. The Yankees lineup finally showed signs of life in the bottom of the half as Brett Gardner (starting in the leadoff spot, as Derek Jeter was a late scratch) singled to begin the bottom half and moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Nick Swisher. Gardner scored when Mark Teixeira grounded into a double play to tie the score.
On the day, Gardner went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
After a walk to Henry Blanco with one out in the third, Reyes would blast his second homerun of the day over the wall in right to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.
Jorge Posada set the pitch to go inside, but Hughes would miss the target by a foot, moving toward the middle of the plate, enabling Reyes to extend his arms.
The Yankee quickly responded when Teixeira homered to right-center to tie the game on hanging splitter that he was able to lift. In the fourth, Curtis Granderson would give them the lead when he took another hanging pitch from Pelfrey, this time a curveball and hit it into the lower deck in right to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead.
Armed with the lead, Hughes would go to work. After allowing the homerun in the third, he allowed only one hit until the sixth inning when the Mets put up their best threat of the afternoon.
Angel Pagan started the sixth with a single. After David Wright popped out to second, Ike Davis walked. With Jason Bay representing the tying run, Hughes got him on a first pitch cutter to ground into an around the horn double play to end the inning.
An eighth pitch seventh closed the game in style for the Yankee right hander, who gave up three runs on five hits, walking three and striking out four over 99 pitches.
Pelfrey battled through the homeruns to go seven innings, allowing five runs, seven hits, walking three and striking out to over 106 pitches, seeing his ERA increase to 2.69. Outside of the two homeruns, he held the Yankees offense down as noticed by the 1-for-8 they hit with runners in scoring position (now 2-for-17 in the series).
With the two run lead, Manager Joe Girardi chose not to go back with Hughes for the eighth inning and instead went to Joba Chamberlain, who pitched around a two-out double by Pagan to strikeout Wright half-swinging on a slider, stranding him as the tying run at the plate.
Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth, running his hitless streak to 18 consecutive batters as the Yankees could finally exhale. It has been their winning formula all season. It begins with a strong outing from the starters, followed by Chamberlain and Rivera in the late innings to close the game.
Hard to believe this was the same team that beat Roy Halladay and Pelfrey lost games to Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick and Hisanori Takahashi.
Go figure.
Sunday is the finally of the Subway Series as aces Johan Santana and CC Sabathia match up.
BRONX – Do not ask Phil Hughes about possibly making the American League All Star team.
It is not a topic he will discuss for any great length, except to say that it would be an honor if selected by his manager, who happens to be Joe Girardi.
The site of the midsummer classic, Angel Stadium in Anaheim was ten miles from where he grew up in Santa Ana. If he continues to pitch the way he has this season, he will definitely find his way there in July.
Hughes bested Mike Pelfrey to notch his tenth win of the year to tie the American League lead with the Rays David Price against one loss to help the Yankees snap a three game losing skid in front of 49,073 at Yankee Stadium in a 5-3 victory over the Mets.
It was a game where he did not have his best stuff early, but despite a slow start, he found his groove, proceeding to shut down the Mets offense.
Jose Reyes drove Hughes’ second pitch of the game into the right field seats for a leadoff homerun that stunned the Stadium crowd while Mets fans made their presence known.
Coming into the game at 9-1 and 2.39 ERA, Mike Pelfrey looked to improve on those numbers. The Yankees lineup finally showed signs of life in the bottom of the half as Brett Gardner (starting in the leadoff spot, as Derek Jeter was a late scratch) singled to begin the bottom half and moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Nick Swisher. Gardner scored when Mark Teixeira grounded into a double play to tie the score.
On the day, Gardner went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
After a walk to Henry Blanco with one out in the third, Reyes would blast his second homerun of the day over the wall in right to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.
Jorge Posada set the pitch to go inside, but Hughes would miss the target by a foot, moving toward the middle of the plate, enabling Reyes to extend his arms.
The Yankee quickly responded when Teixeira homered to right-center to tie the game on hanging splitter that he was able to lift. In the fourth, Curtis Granderson would give them the lead when he took another hanging pitch from Pelfrey, this time a curveball and hit it into the lower deck in right to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead.
Armed with the lead, Hughes would go to work. After allowing the homerun in the third, he allowed only one hit until the sixth inning when the Mets put up their best threat of the afternoon.
Angel Pagan started the sixth with a single. After David Wright popped out to second, Ike Davis walked. With Jason Bay representing the tying run, Hughes got him on a first pitch cutter to ground into an around the horn double play to end the inning.
An eighth pitch seventh closed the game in style for the Yankee right hander, who gave up three runs on five hits, walking three and striking out four over 99 pitches.
Pelfrey battled through the homeruns to go seven innings, allowing five runs, seven hits, walking three and striking out to over 106 pitches, seeing his ERA increase to 2.69. Outside of the two homeruns, he held the Yankees offense down as noticed by the 1-for-8 they hit with runners in scoring position (now 2-for-17 in the series).
With the two run lead, Manager Joe Girardi chose not to go back with Hughes for the eighth inning and instead went to Joba Chamberlain, who pitched around a two-out double by Pagan to strikeout Wright half-swinging on a slider, stranding him as the tying run at the plate.
Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth, running his hitless streak to 18 consecutive batters as the Yankees could finally exhale. It has been their winning formula all season. It begins with a strong outing from the starters, followed by Chamberlain and Rivera in the late innings to close the game.
Hard to believe this was the same team that beat Roy Halladay and Pelfrey lost games to Jamie Moyer, Kyle Kendrick and Hisanori Takahashi.
Go figure.
Sunday is the finally of the Subway Series as aces Johan Santana and CC Sabathia match up.
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