Yankees bounce back from losing streak with help of starting pitchers

The Yankees were 9-5 entering their first season series against their arch rival the Boston Red Sox on Friday when all of a sudden their weakness was exposed, their starting pitching. Although many had questioned the Yankees pitching prior to this year the starting rotation (other than Chen-Meng Wang) didn't seem to have any major problems. However in that Red Sox series their pitching finally showed why it had been questioned by so many. Joba Chamberlain actually had a win going into the ninth despite not pitching well at all through five innings when the Yankees bullpen gave up a two run home run to blow their lead and eventually lost in extra innings. The next day A.J Burnett who many people thought was a questionable offseason aquisition gave up seven earned runs. To make matters worse on Saturday the Yankees bullpen also gave up seven more runs and the Yankees lost 11-14. And then on Sunday Andy Petite looked to give the Yankees some help but failed giving up four runs in six innings and the Yankees were swept by the Red Sox.

The next day the Yankees traveled to Detroit to attempt to end their three game losing streak by defeating the A.L Central leading Tigers. The yanks ace C.C Sabathia had a bad outing giving up four runs and a boat load of hits to the tigers in the Yankees 4-2 loss. Seeing as it was Chen-Meng Wang's turn in the rotation and also knowing that Wang had an earned run average just over 39 the Yankees moved Wang to their minor league affiliate Wilkes Barre/Scranton. They called up a young pitcher in Phil Hughes who had an opportunity to be in the yanks rotation last year but was horrible when he was moved into the rotation so the team sent him back to the minors. Hughes finally got an opportunity to try and earn a rotation spot on Tuesday against the Tigers and with his newly developed cutter pitch Hughes gave the Yankees a very good reason to put him in their rotation by giving up no runs on two hits through six innings and getting the Yankees their first win in four games.

And last night after there had been so much talk about experts on how Joba Chamberlain was not good enough to be a starting pitcher in the MLB and how the Yankees should move him to the bull pen Chamberlain finally shut up all of his critics (at least until his next start) by giving up one run on six hits in seven innings as well as having eight strikeouts.

"It shows you he has the ability to focus and concentrate and take the
adrenaline out of the situation and make a pitch," Yankees manager Joe Girardi
said. "That's how you'll be successful as a starter."

It looks as if for right now the Yankees pitchers have found their swagger but can it continue? Tonight the yanks begin a four game series with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. A.J Burnett, Andy Petite, C.C Sabathia, and Phil Hughes will get to pitch in the series and hopefully keep the Yankees pitching on this current hot streak they are on.