Hughes Sends Yankees to 7th Straight

The day started out with the Yankees losing out in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, but ended nicely when Phil Hughes dominated the Seattle Mariners en route to a 6-1 win. It was the team's 7th straight win and the best Hughes has looked since he beat the Mets on June 19.

Much of the day, much of mine anyway, reading/hearing/tweeting about how the Yankees were about to land Lee and virtually lock up the AL East race. That all changed in the late afternoon when the Mariners passed on the Yankees offer and sent Lee to Texas as part of a six player deal.

David Purcey, who faced the Yankees as a Red Sox rookie in 2006, replaced Lee as last night's starter. At one point he retired 13 batters in a row before the Yankees finally broke the game open with a four-run sixth inning. Leading 1-0 on a first inning by Mark Teixeira, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks and a Jose Lopez error. Alex Rodriguez brought home one run with a sac fly off reliever Chad Cordero and Robinson Cano followed with a two-run triple up the alley in right-center. After a walk to Jorge Posada, Curtis Granderson made it a 5-1 game with an RBI single.

Teixeira would add another solo home run, his 17th, in the 8th inning, but Hughes and company would need no more. The right-hander became the third Yankees pitcher to earn his 11th win by scattering six hits over seven innings. He didn't walk a batter and struck out five and exited after 109 pitches.

Notes

Mark Teixeira may have turned the corner back to respectability. Since June 27, Tex has gone 14-41 (.341) to raise his average to .243, and has four home runs and 11 RBI.

According to the Elias Sports Burea, Hughes, CC Sabathia, and Andy Pettitte are only the 3rd trio of AL teammates to have 11 wins before the break. '70 and '71 O's are the other teams to have accomplished the feat.