Royals Phil'et Hughes

Today went from bad to worse for the Yankees. The day started out with rainy, cold weather, the latter remaining throughout this afternoon's contest. Then came word that Derek Jeter would miss at least the entire Royals series and could still land on the DL. Phil Hughes then went out and was God awful, and didn't make it out of the 4th inning. To top on the things off, on the heels of a 5-2 loss, the Yankees announced they were sending Jorge Posada for an MRI on his sore right shoulder.

Aprils in recent years have not been kind to the Yankees. They have won just 44 of 93 contests in April (incl. 2 games in March in '04) over the last 4 seasons. This year's 4-4 start would indicate more of the same. And just as happened last season, key players are off to miserable starts.

These Yankees batting averages read as follows after today's game:

Johnny Damon .200
Derek Jeter .208
Robinson Cano .188
Jason Giambi .071
Jorge Posada .176
Wilson Betemit .154

Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui, Melky Cabrera, and Alex Rodriguez have hit the ball well, though A-Rod's golden sombrero in today's game dropped his average 44 points (.276).

There's going to be growing pains with young pitching, as already evidenced by Ian Kennedy's performance against Tampa Bay on Friday and Phil Hughes' start today. Whether the cold weather had an affect remains to be seen, but Hughes never had "it" today.

Joey Gathright singled to lead off the ball game and stole the first of three bases on the day. One batter later he came home on Mark Teahen's double. The Yankees gave Hughes the lead in the 2nd on an RBI single by Betemit and a bases loaded walk to Damon, but Hughes gave it right back again.

Alex Gordon lead off with a single and advanced to 2nd when Abreu over ran the ball in right. A ground out and John Buck's sac fly tied the game. Hughes issued back-to-back two out walks in the 3rd to load the bases before escaping the jam. He wouldn't be so lucky in the 4th.

Gathright singled, stole 2nd and 3rd, and came home on Mark Grudzielanek's single. That spelled the end of the day before the young right-hander, who lost his first game of the season. Ross Ohlendorf pitched impressively to prevent further damage in the inning, but he let the game get away in the 5th, giving up a 2-run single to Ross Gload.

The Yankees had Royals starter Brian Bannister on the ropes for most of his 5 innings, but couldn't deliver the knock out blow. After scoring the 2 runs in the 2nd inning, Robinson Cano stuck out with the bases loaded to end the threat. The pitch was well out of the strike zone, an issue that remains a problem for the 2nd Baseman.

Singles by Abreu and Matsui gave the Yankees a chance with one out in the third, but Posada flied out and Giambi grounded out. Bannister allowed just one base runner over the next two innings before turning things over to the bullpen.

Veteran Ron Mahay got himself in a jam by allowing a walk to Jason Giambi and a two out single to Melky Cabrera in the 6th, but Damon struck out. Then the Royals young, hard throwers (Ramon Ramirez, Luis Nunez, Joakim Soria) came in, and the Yankees were toast.

News and Notes

Ever day, in every way, we are less and less impressed with Wilson Betemit. He can't hit right-handed at all and barely hits from the left side. He also dropped two throws today that might have caught would-be base stealers.

Apparently the Yankees can't handle anyone with the name Wilson, whether it be first or last. Think Enrique and Craig.

The only bright spots on the day were scoreless innings tossed by Billy Traber and LaTroy Hawkins.

The Royals have now won their last 2 home openers. Last season they pounded Curt Schilling and the Red Sox. There's a phrase we always like seeing in writing.

The Royals were successful in 5 of 6 steal attempts. Time to get Phil Hughes working on a slide step.

We're now going to take a big swig of Listerine in hopes of washing this game out of our mouths and our memories.

NY Yankees	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Damon, LF	3	0	1	1	2	0	2	.200
Cano, 2B	5	0	1	0	0	2	5	.188
Abreu, RF	4	0	1	0	0	1	2	.379
Rodriguez, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	4	2	.276
Matsui, DH	4	0	1	0	0	0	1	.357
Posada, C	3	1	1	0	0	0	2	.176
Molina, C	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.286
Giambi, 1B	2	1	0	0	2	1	2	.071
Betemit, SS	4	0	1	1	0	3	1	.154
Cabrera, CF	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	.294
Totals	33	2	7	2	5	11	17
BATTING TB: Damon; Cano; Abreu; Matsui; Posada; Betemit; Cabrera. RBI: Betemit (1), Damon (1). 2-out RBI: Betemit; Damon. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cano 2; Giambi; Damon. GIDP: Abreu. Team LOB: 9. FIELDING E: Abreu (1, fielding). DP: (Cano-Betemit-Giambi).

NY Yankees	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Hughes (L, 0-1)	3.0	6	3	3	4	2	0	5.00
Ohlendorf	3.0	4	2	2	0	3	0	3.86
Traber	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0.00
Hawkins	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	15.75

Kansas City	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Gathright, CF	4	2	2	0	0	1	1	.214
Grudzielanek, 2B	4	0	2	1	1	0	1	.417
1-German, PR-2B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Teahen, LF	4	0	2	1	1	1	4	.296
Guillen, RF	5	0	0	0	0	2	4	.138
Butler, DH	4	1	2	0	0	1	2	.414
Gordon, 3B	4	2	2	0	0	1	1	.300
Gload, 1B	3	0	2	2	1	0	1	.360
Buck, C	2	0	0	1	1	1	1	.200
Pena, SS	3	0	0	0	1	1	4	.048
Totals	33	5	12	5	5	8	19
1-Ran for Grudzielanek in the 8th.
BATTING 2B: Teahen 2 (3, Hughes, Ohlendorf), Gordon (2, Ohlendorf). TB: Gathright 2; Grudzielanek 2; Teahen 4; Butler 2; Gordon 3; Gload 2. RBI: Teahen (3), Buck (4), Grudzielanek (2), Gload 2 (2). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Butler 2; Teahen 2; Pena 2; Gathright; Guillen. SF: Buck. GIDP: Teahen. Team LOB: 11. BASERUNNING SB: Gload (1, 2nd base off Traber/Molina), Gathright 3 (5, 2nd base off Hughes/Posada, 2nd base off Hughes/Posada, 3rd base off Hughes/Posada), Pena (1, 2nd base off Hughes/Posada). CS: Gload (2, 3rd base by Traber/Molina). FIELDING DP: (Grudzielanek-Pena-Gload).

Kansas City	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Bannister (W, 2-0)	5.0	5	2	2	4	6	0	1.50
Mahay (H, 2)	1.1	2	0	0	1	2	0	1.93
Ramirez (H, 2)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.00
Nunez (H, 2)	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0.00
Soria (S, 4)	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00

Hughes pitched to 2 batters in the 4th.

HBP: Gathright (by Hughes).
Pitches-strikes: Hughes 87-47, Ohlendorf 36-23, Traber 13-8, Hawkins 14-9, Bannister 97-58, Mahay 31-18, Ramirez 11-7, Nunez 13-9, Soria 14-10.
Ground outs-fly outs: Hughes 3-4, Ohlendorf 4-2, Traber 0-0, Hawkins 2-0, Bannister 6-3, Mahay 0-2, Ramirez 0-1, Nunez 0-1, Soria 1-2.
Batters faced: Hughes 20, Ohlendorf 12, Traber 3, Hawkins 5, Bannister 23, Mahay 7, Ramirez 2, Nunez 3, Soria 3.
Inherited runners-scored: Ohlendorf 1-0, Ramirez 1-0.
Umpires: HP: Mark Wegner. 1B: Chad Fairchild. 2B: Rick Reed. 3B: Jeff Kellogg.
Weather: 46 degrees, cloudy.
Wind: 10 mph, L to R.
T: 3:15.
Att: 37,296.

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