Yankees at Tigers, 28 April 2009: A Liveblog

3.47 PM: Lots doing today. First, you got Phil Hughes making his season debut. He had solid numbers at Scranton, but he's struggled in the big leagues, though he spent much of last season hurt.

Second, check out this post on the Yankees reducing luxury seat prices for the 2009 season.

Of course, for the rest of us who don't work six figure jobs, prices will remain the same.

4.10 PM: Word on the street is that A-Rod's target date has been moved up by the team. We shall see.

As for arguments that A-Rod will only marginally improve the team, these are specious. He can't improve the pitching or the bullpen, but he can and probably will improve the offense just from his presence alone.

4.18 PM: Posada is not in the line up again tonight. Cue questions about being injured...

Honestly, I think it's probably just to have Molina work with the young pitcher, but hopefully it's not anything worse.

The Line up

Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Matsui DH
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
Molina C
Pena 3B

5.08 PM: So of course there's this whole swine flu thing going around. A few thoughts:

1) I can't stop playing Pandemic 2. It's addicting.
2) People out in nice little suburbs are worried about catching it, and yet I'm living in the Big City and kinda 'eh' about it. I find it incredibly interesting and am washing my hands much more than I normally do, but other than that I'm not freaking. Yet.
3) So of course I wake up today with a scratchy throat...(however, I am fever/nasuea/other stomach upset/weak/dizzy free, so let's chalk it up to some pretend allergies that I don't really have).

5.45 PM: Took a walk outside down to the grocery store and my favorite bakery on Arthur Ave. There was a guy in the bakery wearing shorts and a Johnny Damon t-shirt. If you're him and reading this post, speak up! Hot damn, it's hot outside.

5.46 PM: Posada's out of the line up tonight with a sore hamstring. This likely explains his "dogging it" yesterday.

Let's hope 'sore' isn't a word for something more sinister.

7.13 PM: Yet another blink-and-you-miss-it inning. Damon was the only one to remotely work a count. It's only the first inning. I really shouldn't be this despondent.

7.21 PM: Great first inning for Hughes. Great play by Peña at third. Cody Ransom probably doesn't make that play. Berroa definitely does not.

7.27 PM: Yankee bats go quietly again. After being near the top in many offensive categories, Yankee bats have cooled significantly the last couple of days.

7.36 PM: Hughes works around a lead-off single. The second out of the inning, a strikeout, was nasty. Welcome back to the bigs, kid.

7.50 PM: Melky Cabrera leads off the inning with a single; but Jeter's single is sandwiched between three outs and once again the Yankees are held scoreless.

8.01 PM: Hughes works around a two-out walk and despite falling behind on Polanco 3-0 escapes with no damage done. He is getting squeezed on a few of his pitches, which can come back to haunt him if it ups his pitch count substantially.

8.18 PM: Do you think maybe the Yankees should hire a sports psychologist or something to figure out why these guys can't buy a hit with RISP? Yankees, by the way, have not hit a home run since Saturday.

8.30 PM: The good news is that there are two outs. The bad news is that the bases are chucked with Tigers.

8.31 PM: And Hughes works out of the jam. It's like he loaded the bases just to see what it feels like!

8.39 PM: You know that old poem that goes "don't go quietly into that good night?" Would it kill Girardi to plaster it everywhere in the locker room?

8.45 PM: Hughes has a perfect 1-2-3 bounceback inning, with a k, pop out and ground out. The 0-1 pitch to Polanco was beyond nasty-a knuckle curve that looked like it would hit the batter before diving back in for a strike.

8.53 PM: Hideki Matsui just hit a triple. No, I'm not making this up. Yes, you read that right-bum knees and all.

9.00 PM: I'm out of ideas here. The Yankees won't hit with RISP. Maybe they're trying to spite me because I got into an argument with someone earlier...

9.10 PM: This is by far the best I've ever seen Hughes. Granted I missed the starts when he first came up, but if he doesn't get that win tonight, there's gonna be at least one really, really unhappy girl in the Bronx.

9.19 PM: Jorge Posada in to pinch hit, which means the defense at third is gonna take a major hit the next few innings. And now the count is 0-2.

9.21 PM: Well, defensive hits are easier to take when you're up 2-0. What should have been a sac fly was just not caught and two runs score. Posada-now-Berroa is on second with one out.

9.35 PM: Apparently the Tiger bullpen is perfect medicine for anemic offenses.

9.43 PM: José Molina just hit a grand slam. I repeat. José Molina just hit a grand slam.

9.47 PM: Was that an amazing half inning, or what? 10-0 Yankees.

9.59 PM: Getting so distracted by the Devils forgot to mention Melancon got through the bottom half of the inning on ten pitches. And Matsui was just kind of robbed of a single if not a double.

10.11 PM: I really, really hate Carolina right now.

10.15 PM: It'd been a while for Swisher, hadn't it? 11-0 Yanks. Singleton's call was great, like 'oh, hey, yeah, that's a home run'.