Boos for Hughes

Yanks Stunned by Mariners in 12-2 Loss

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, MAY 16- Game #2 of the series with the Seattle Mariners featured a number of strange events and was a complete debacle for the Yankees. Before the first Yankees player approached the plate in the bottom of the first, the Yanks were trailing by seven runs.

After Yankees starter Phil Hughes retired the first Seattle batter in the game, the next seven batters successfully reached base. The key blow of the 11 batter inning was a grand slam homer by Raúl Ibañez. The Yankees post-season hero of 2012 blasted a 0-1 pitch into the seats for his 11th career grand slam.

The shortest start of Hughes’s career in the majors lasted only 0.2 innings. The 36 pitch effort by Hughes yielded six hits, two walks and seven runs to Seattle. The very disappointed hurler explained his feelings after the contest, “Nothing was happening for me. Nobody feels worse than I do. It’s going to be tough to sleep the next couple of nights.”

The optimistic Yankees manager Joe Girardi tried to put the performance of Hughes in perspective, “If you start long enough, you’re going to get one of these [games]. You’ve got to throw it out and put it behind you.”

A plethora of injuries created a situation in which two Yankees made their MLB debuts in the game. Right-handed pitcher Brett Marshall was called up on Monday. In an attempt to save the bullpen, Marshall pitched 5.2 innings in his first game in the majors. With one out and one on in the fifth, Marshall gave up the second homer of the game to Ibañez. The Yankee Stadium atmosphere is especially pleasing to Ibañez as he has hit nine home runs in his last 11 games at the current stadium. The other three runs surrendered by Marshall also came on a four bagger. With two on and no one out in the sixth, Kyle Seagar drove in three runs with a home run. After the contest, Marshall said, “You don’t expect your first game to be like that.”

David Adams celebrated his 26th birthday by playing in his first major league game. He described his feelings of being the first Yankee to make his major league debut on his birthday, “I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be.”

Adams started at third base on the day he was called up from the minors. Adams hit a ground ball through the middle for a single in the sixth. Of the ball that was saved, he commented, “My wife and mother are going to fight over it. Maybe I’ll get them some boxing gloves.”

The two runs scored off the winning pitcher, Hisashi Iwakuma (5-1) were by solo homers, one by Vernon Wells in the first and the other by Chris Stewart in the fifth.
Another strange occurrence was that infielder Alberto Gonzalez was sent to the mound with two out in the ninth. Girardi described his question to Gonzalez, “I need you for an out or two, are you okay with it?” Gonzalez retired Robert Andino on a fly to right.
Andy Pettitte (4-2) will be going for his 250th win in the rubber game on Wednesday night against starter Aaron Harang (1-4) for Seattle.