All you need to know about Friday afternoon’s game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox is that the "YANKEES SUCK" chant was being heard around Fenway Park in the ninth inning. That, of course, because the Red Sox outslugged the Yankees, 9-6, for their first victory of 2011 after a season-opening six-game losing streak.
Yankees starting pitcher Phil Hughes was terrible, surrending six runs and seven hits in just two innings. Hughes seemed to have nothing, and now has an ERA of 16.50 after two starts. After winning 18 games a season ago the right-hander has started miserably in 2011. The Yankees understood heading into the season that the fourth and fifth spots in their starting rotations would be question marks, They can’t afford to also have Hughes turn into one.
Oh, well. Yankee fans had to know that the Red Sox would not go 0-162. Picking on the Red Sox while they bumbled their way through the beginning of the season was fun while it lasted. The real work, however, has just begun.