Well, the good news about the rainout is that Pettitte is going to pitch against the Red Sox in the weekend series at Yankee Stadium on Friday (meaning Jeff Karstens doesn't get assassinated), and our bullpen finally gets a day off. Big sigh of relief there. Hopefully this means that if the PHuture should he get into trouble against a tough (but injured) Blue Jays lineup, he'll get some, you know, relief.
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For those not familiar with Phil Hughes (The PHuture, as I call him), he has a nice variety of pitches, including 94-98 MPH 4-seam and 2-seam fastballs, a knee-buckling curve (which was improved even further this Spring when Mussina taught Hughes to adapt the knucklecurve grip into his repertoire) that varies from 12-6 or 1-7, and a decent slider. Apparently (from Wiki) he also throws a change, which is a good thing.
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Despite what Torre is saying, there is plenty of reason why he isn't going to pitch Hughes against the Red Sox. He's already seen Chase Wright get shredded by their red-hot lineup (pun intended), and even though I blame much of that on Torre not taking the kid out of the game after the second home run or having the kid brush back the Boston hitters, it just makes more sense to match with the Jays. Their lineup is hurting (Glaus, Johnson, etc.), and their closer is on the 60-day DL. It helps our chances, at least, getting this kid something relatively close to a win.
No need to give the kid a baptism by fire if they don't have to. Plus, pitching Pettitte on Friday against the Sox gives him the chance to get revenge.
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Incidentally, I read it was 84 degrees in Central Park the other day. Whoo. It makes me glad to jog down my street and still see ice on Lake Erie.
