The Yankee Clipper: Despite Great Pitching, a Doubleheader Split

Two days after losing a tough game to the Tigers (and Jose Valverde's chicken dance) and one day after being rained out, the Yankees went back at it again yesterday with a day-night doubleheader. It's odd how it turns out, but most of the time, no matter how unbalanced the teams might be, it usually ends up that doubleheaders get split. Last night was no exception. The Tigers took the afternoon affair and the Yankees won the evening game. Let's take a look at how that happened:

1. Javier Vazquez's best start of the season. If he wasn't making over $11 million, you would probably feel bad for the guy. After being all out of whack this season, he pitched a really good game giving up only 2 runs over seven strong innings, striking out 7--and his team got shutout for the first time all season. The two runs were on groundballs that just snuck through the infield so hopefully this is a start that Vazquez can build on as we move forward. Mike at River Ave Blues noted that Vazquez worked at a quicker pace and with confidence--and that is usually half the battle with struggling pitchers--and got 16 swings and misses. Vazquez was a little wild early on but settled down to retired 14 of 15 at one point. In the words of Herm Edwards "we can build on this!"
2. Phil Hughes' continued dominance. Johnny Damon told Mark Feinsand of the Daily News that Hughes could be the ace on 15-20 teams in Major League Baseball. LoHud's Chad Jennings agrees. At this point, they may be right. You forget how young he is, too--he won't turn 24 until June 24th. The only Yankees in the past 30 years to win more games than Hughes by age 24 were Andy Pettitte, Dave Righetti, and Bob Wickman. Hughes leads the league in ERA (1.38), wins (5), H/9 (5.077), ERA+ (289), Win Probability Added (1.7), 2nd in WHIP (.923), 4th in HR/9 (.231), 4th in WAR (1.3) and 6th in K/9 (9.000). Hughes' FIP is 2.50 and his xFIP is 3.60 so you expect that ERA to creep up a bit (he's probably going to give up another home run at some point), but so far he's been fabulous. The regular season domination we saw last year with Hughes as a set-up man has translated into Hughes as a confident starter. His cutter has been a tremendous pitch for him.
3. Go Go Brett Gardner. GGBG has been great for the Yankees. He has 16 steals (to only one CS) so far on the season and is on pace for 83 SB. I doubt he'll get to that point, but I'm setting the over/under on Gardner stolen bases at 60. His FanGraphs speed number of 8.7 is top in the AL and 2nd in all of baseball. But more important than the stolen bases, Gardner's been the Yankees' second-best hitter behind Robinson Cano.  He's 6th in the AL is average (.337), 4th in runs (26), 4th in OBP (.420), and 12th in wOBA (.403). He's playing great defense and he's working counts. Chris at TYU writes about how Gardner is just slap the ball to left. He's swung at only 30.2% of pitches which is the lowest % in all of baseball (and prompted FanGraphs's headline "Gardner Is Swinging at Nothing") and his Z-Contact % (the percentage of times a batter makes contact with the ball when swinging at pitches thrown inside the strike zone) is at 99.0% which is 3rd in all of baseball. In 0-2 counts, he's hitting .450 (.476 OBP). Now I think his numbers are going to come down, but right now I agree with NoMass: Gardner has become a very valuable asset.
4. Derek Jeter is struggling. Lost in this Yankees season has been the struggles of Derek Jeter. He's hitting only .270/.311/.411 with a .323 wOBA. Oddly enough Jeter is striking out only 10.6% of the time which would be--by far--the lowest % of his career, but he's only walking 4.6% of the time which would be--by far--the lowest % of his career. His BAbip is .276 (his career mark is .358) which makes you think this is all a fluke, and Joe Girardi told the New York Post that Jeter's luck has been terrible--but there's no doubt Jeter has not been good so far in his contract year. His last week, Jeter has hit .080/.179/.120 with only 1 XBH (a double) and one RBI. His line drives (career 20.5%, this year 12.6%) and fly balls (career 23.3%, this year 18.1%) have been replaced by ground balls (career high 69.3% so far in 2010). He's on pace to go 20/20, but other than that, he's scuffling so far in 2010.
5. Nick Swisher is hurt. Add him to the injured list with a tight biceps. They say he's day-to-day, but this isn't good for a banged up team. Greg Golson and just-called up Juan Miranda are in the starting lineup today according to Chad Jennings. Let's hope the injuries start turning around soon, because while the Yankees have been able to weather the storm, series against Boston, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay won't be as easy with a AAA lineup.

Final thought: Root, root, root for the Flyers. They have erased a 3-0 lead against the Boston Bruins. That's right, they would join the 2004 Yankees as teams to blow a 3-0 series lead. If they do lose it, they can add themselves to the collapse list and Boston sports fans will have a new choke to chew on. I've never rooted for the Flyers in the past (and usually don't mind rooting for the Bruins), but for Game 7, I'm a Flyer fan.

The Yankees are 22-11 and have a +72 run differential and both are second in all of baseball to the Rays. After today's afternoon game the Yankees play one of their toughest stretches of the season with the Twins, Red Sox, and Rays all coming to the Bronx in the next week. The Yankees have a chance to split the series with a win today and then have a chance to put a real statement on the American League with wins this next week. The quest for 28 continues.

Picture from the Daily News