Yankees Give Boston First Win Despite Potent Offense

Commentary:

The Red Sox needed to win a game and they finally broke out of their slump at the right time yesterday afternoon, beating the Yankees 9-6 in front of 37,718 at Fenway.  As has been the theme early, the Yankees had no problem  scoring runs on Friday with 8 hits and RBIs from 5 players.  A-Rod had another home run and the Yanks were decent with RISP (3-10) although the Red Sox were better at 6 for 10.  A positive the be taken from this loss would be the continued run scoring in the first half of the game against John Lackey despite being put in a hole early by the incompetence and lack of velocity of Phil Hughes.

Speaking of Hughes, he only lasted 2 innings, throwing 47 pitches, allowing 6 runs, and walking 2 while striking out none.  This was the second bad start for Hughes in a row and the main issue seems to be a lack of velocity.  His fastball was slightly faster than his first start at 90-91mph but his location was still off and he struggled during his short outing.  The questions has to be raised whether Hughes should be sent down to the minors to build arm strength and allow Colon to start.  But it seems at this point that Hughes will remain in the rotation for now.

After Hughes departed, Colon did a good job limiting the damage allowing 2 runs, 1 earned.  He kept the game at 6-7 into the 7th when Girardi made a questionable move, bringing in Boone Logan to pitch to David Ortiz immediately after a strikeout by Colon.  Obviously the thinking here was to bring in the lefty to face the lefty but Colon looked sharp and had only thrown 62 pitches.  If Logan was a "specialty lefty" I'd understand the move but he's not and has not looked good so far this season.  As expected, Logan blew the game open by allowing Ortiz to double and he scored later when Robertson allowed a hit.  The game was now 6-9 and the Yanks lost by the same margin.

Grades:

Offense:  A-  Didn't score enough in the late innings to warrant an A but scoring each inning on John Lackey was impressive.

Starting Pitching (Hughes): F  Really can't find anything good in this outing.

Bullpen:  C+  Colon was great but Robertson and especially Logan were not.

Weather for Today's/Tomorrow's Matchup:

The game has already started so I won't forecast for today but here is tomorrow's forecast.

Game Time Conditions (8:05pm Sun):  50 degrees and cloudy with rain developing.  Possibility of not being able to complete the game.

Verification of Yesterday's Forecast:

Forecast Temp: 48
Observed Temp: 47
Forecast Conditions:  Partly Cloudy
Observed Conditions: Partly Cloudy

Grade: A