Phil Hughes Gets Batted Around After Skipped Start

The "Phil Hughes Rules" have claimed their first start, which would have been last Friday. Those same rules have also claimed their first loss as the Yankees fell to the Mariners 7-4. 

The Seattle Mariners are among the worst offensive teams in baseball, and with Hughes on the mound, boasting a 10-1 record, the game would appear to be a good match up for the Yankees.

That is of course not mentioning the 10 days in between tonight and Hughes's last start. Due to limits on innings pitched, he had to miss his last scheduled start on June 25.

Hughes pitched very poorly against Seattle. He allowed at least one run in every inning except for the first, and was pulled after five and two thirds.

The Mariners posted 10 hits, including a home run and four doubles, and six earned runs. That's coming from a terrible offensive team against arguably the best pitcher for the Yankees this year.

If you ask me that sounds like he either had a really bad night, or something was hindering his effectiveness on the mound. MY9 Broadcaster, Al Leiter thought the latter of the two. 

"By limiting his innings and skipping his last start, I think it has affected his effectiveness tonight," Leiter said.

Either way, he pitched very poorly, and hopefully this will serve as a lesson to New York  not skip any more starts. But I'm sure they will just say that he had a bad outing.

Yeah, a bad outing due to 10 days off.

Nick Swisher accounted for two of the Yankee runs, with two solo shots off Cliff Lee, but the rest of the Yankee offense was unable to pick it up. Lee threw a complete game.

An embarrassing performance by New York, and one that could be the first of many to come, if Hughes is unable to pitch like he did before the "rules" came into effect.

A game that the Yankees, seemingly, should have won turned out to be an easy win for the Mariners, whose offensive woes ended against a pathetic Hughes.