I think Hughes is a five-inning pitcher.

It's tough to analyze "killer instinct," but this team really doesn't seem to have it. Despite their excellent play in the past two weeks which has enabled them to maintain their AL East lead.

The Orioles had already lost.

The Yankees were beating a team that is a million games under .500.

The Yankees had a 2-run lead in the 7th inning.

John Harper blames Logan, and Logan deserves most of the blame. Losing pitcher Hughes also deserves a lot of the blame:

"In a month full of close games, the bullpen has been more crucial than ever for the Yankees, and for the most part, Joe Girardi has been typically aggressive in getting the best out of it. But Tuesday night he was too quick with the trigger and it cost him.

You can argue that bringing in Boone Logan to face Denard Span with the bases loaded in the seventh inning was the book move — lefty vs. lefty and all that.

However, Phil Hughes was pitching a gem, and bases loaded or not, 'he still had good stuff,' catcher Russell Martin said afterward, when Girardi gave him the hook."

I was thinking Hughes should have never started the 7th in the first place. Predictably, the bases were loaded before I could say "Chien Ming Wang."


"At the time he was leading 3-1, his pitch count was at 99 and he’d just struck out Pedro Florimon for the second out of the inning. No wonder he was doing his best, after the 5-4 loss to the Twins, not to let his anger spill out publicly.

Besides the fact that Hughes deserved the chance to pitch to Span, the bigger issue is the workload on the bullpen. At some point there’s a price to pay for pushing relievers to the limit, and this may have been a case in point."

Congratulations on striking out ... ummm, who? ... Pedro Florimon?

Hughes has allowed more HRs than just about anybody in the American League. Denard Span isn't Lou Gehrig, but he isn't Pedro Florimon. I absolutely don't trust Hughes on his 100th pitch with the bases loaded and the game on the line.

Logan blew it bigtime. Maybe it's due to overuse, but Logan was only asked to get one batter out.

Get one batter out and guess what happens? Girardi is a genius and the Yankees have a 2 1/2 game lead.