Hughes Important Bridge to Yankees' Title Hopes

The 2009 edition of the World Series is now knotted at one game apiece after the Yankees disposed of the Phillies, 3-1 Thursday night in New York. The series moved down I-95 about 90 miles for the next three games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

The first two games have been dominated by starting pitching. Cliff Lee operated with surgeon-like precision in the Phillies opening game, 6-1 win. His counter-part, CC Sabathia, pitched well enough to win, but his offense couldn't’ solve Lee and once he departed the back end of the bullpen allowed the Phils to extend their 2-0 lead.. In game two, AJ Burnett, more volatile than the 2008 stock market, rose to the occasion for NY by striking out nine and allowing just one run in seven strong innings. For the Phils, love’em or hate’em Pedro Martinez kept Yankee hitters off-balance with his effective mix of change-ups, curve balls, and tailing fastballs before getting the hook in the sixth inning.

A most revealing move for the Yankees was when manager Joe Girardi, desperately needing a win so as to not head to Philly down two games to none, decided to bring in the most trusted name in post-season relief, Mariano Rivera, to pitch both the eight and ninth innings. Rivera, the most heralded closer in baseball post-season history, usually specializes in getting just the last three outs. There have been occasions when he was asked to pitch part of the eighth and perhaps close it out with the last four or five outs. But, usually managers give the ball to their “set-up man”, an eighth inning guy, who then turns the game’s fortunes over to the closer in hopes of wrapping up the win.

The set-up man is commonly called a bridge to the closer. Girardi must have felt that by risking having to wait for Rivera to pitch the ninth, the bridge for the eighth might prove to be a bridge over troubled waters—why else would he by-pass set-up man Phil Hughes, or even Joba Chamberlain? This was a must win, plain and simple.

In Game 1 the previous night, Hughes continued his pattern of poor post-season pitching by walking the only two batters he faced. Hughes was very solid the second half of the season showing the way to Rivera to the tune of a 3.04 ERA. But, this post-season Hughes looks like a bad impersonation of himself. He has retired only 14 of the 27 hitters he has faced.

According to a recent story on the official Yankees MLB website, Hughes' five post-season runs allowed over just 4-2/3 innings are more than he allowed in 38 eighth-inning appearances during the season. It's also the equivalent to his combined earned run total in June, July and August -- a stretch of 30 games. In seven postseason appearances Hughes has allowed nine hits and four walks, leading to a bloated 9.64 ERA. Troubled waters indeed.

The Yankees’ faithful hope that Hughes’ post-season jitters have worked their way out of his system. With more close ballgames sure to come on three consecutive days in Philly, Girardi will certainly not be able to spend two innings of Rivera relief in one game again. In order for the Yankees to win their 27^th world championship Hughes needs to be able to recapture the form that allowed him to be that very solid bridge to Rivera. If not, the water that lies beneath the bridge could be troubled again.