New York Vs. Detroit
Phil Hughes was good enough over his first 16 starts of 2010 to make the All-Star team, but the remainder of his season - and a disastrous AL championship series - raised some concerns about his long-term potential.
A mysterious drop in velocity hasn't alleviated them.
Hughes gets his first chance to put his second-half struggles and rocky postseason behind him Sunday as he tries to pitch the New York Yankees to a three-game sweep of the visiting Detroit Tigers.
Hughes (18-8, 4.19 ERA) finally looked to be living up to the lofty expectations that come with being one of the Yankees' top prospects in 2010's first half, going 11-2 with a 3.65 ERA and earning a spot on the All-Star team.
The right-hander took the loss in the Midsummer Classic and went 7-6 with a 4.90 ERA in the second half, but the worst was yet to come. After helping New York (2-0) finish off a division series sweep of Minnesota, Hughes surrendered 11 runs in 8 2-3 innings in two ALCS starts against Texas.
"You have a bad second half, all I thought about was those bad games," Hughes said in spring training. "That's a tough feeling, but I think it's good because I had the offseason to think about it. That was fresh in my mind. That's really something I want to improve upon."
Hughes worked on developing his changeup and adding a slider in the offseason, but scouts started to take notice of his lack of velocity in the spring. After being clocked at 90-94 mph a year ago at this time, Hughes was as low as 87 mph with his fastball as he went 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA in five Grapefruit League starts.
If Hughes can pitch anything like he did last season Sunday against the Tigers (0-2), he should be in for a good outing. Hughes went 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in a pair of outings versus Detroit - one before and one after the break - striking out 14 and walking one.
He'll be in even better shape if the Yankees can give him the kind of help they gave A.J. Burnett on Saturday. New York took an early 6-0 lead on Mark Teixeira's three-run shot in the second inning - its first of three homers - and cruised to a 10-6 win.
The Yankees have five homers in their two victories over Detroit, and Teixeira has two - as many as he hit in his first 28 games last season while batting .181.
"The bottom line is, we just haven't kept them in the ballpark," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "They've hit them over the fence. There's no defense for that."
Max Scherzer (12-11, 3.50), who gets the ball from Leyland on Sunday, did more than keep the ball in the park when he made his Yankee Stadium debut Aug. 16. The right-hander held New York to a pair of singles while striking out six over six scoreless innings of a 3-1 victory.
Scherzer's first season in Detroit went exactly the opposite of Hughes' 2010. He was 4-6 with a 5.26 ERA through the end of June, but went 8-5 from there with a 2.31 ERA - the AL's second-best mark after July 1.
He certainly didn't build any momentum in spring training, though. Scherzer capped a rough March by surrendering 12 runs over 2 1/3 innings against Baltimore in his final start, but was confident a lengthy side session in the Bronx and a tweak in his delivery would fix the problem.
Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez will likely sit to rest his surgically repaired ankle after Leyland pulled him from Saturday's loss.
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