Today is April 26 and as Joe Auriemma writes, the home run race between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle truly began 50 years ago in Detroit.

Moving to a more recent April 26, four years ago Phil Hughes made his major league debut when the Yankees were in dire need of pitchers due to various injuries and ineffectiveness. The Yankees were a last place team and when Hughes could not win his debut and the Yankee bats could not score off Phil Hughes, the record was 8-12 and the deficit was 5 1/2 games.

"I felt fine but I just wasn't making pitches and anytime you keep yourself behind in the count, it's not going to be good," Hughes said. "Stuff-wise, I felt fine, but the results were not so great."

That is what Hughes said that night after allowing four runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings to 21 batters and now four years later he is talking about having a dead arm.

The situation is not as dire this time around as the Yankees are 12-7, but there seems to be a pall over Hughes', whose saga of having a mysterious dead arm has taken him to an MRI at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Here's what went happened there: Hughes had two MRIs (elbow and shoulder) that took approximately two hours. He spent four hours there and also had tests to check blood pressure and circulation. He will be going back Wednesday because he did not want to spend eight hours with doctors.

It's a mystery that everyone is trying to solve, but also one that the idea of innings limit was a reason the Yankees used it - to prevent this.

"I think that’s why we talk about why we’re careful,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Everybody is unique and everybody is going to respond to different workloads. Nobody can say two bodies are alike so what is going on with Phil, we may not see for the next 20 years. We don’t really know right now why he’s having these issues but we’re trying to find out."

Tonight also is a fourth start for Ivan Nova, who has not pitched in over 10 days. Nova has struggled so far and since he has options, could return to the minors, especially if Kevin Millwood continues pitching well. Nobody is saying that is happen, but the possibility could be weighing on Nova's mind much like it did on Girardi's mind when he was young player for the Chicago Cubs.

"I believe that can creep into a guy’s mind," Girardi said. "I believe you start thinking about it if you struggle a little bit and if you have options. I think players think about and it’s difficult not to think about it. I think when you’re young and you don’t necessarily have that track record where they feel that managers know he’s going to come out of it. I hope he’s able to shut it out but I’ve been a young player and he’s tough.

 "We told him how important he is. He understands how important he is to this club and we need him to pitch well and we know he’s capable of doing it."

In terms of the lineup, Jorge Posada who has nine hits (six home runs) but also 19 strikeouts in 70 plate appearances get the night off from the starting lineup as Alex Rodriguez gets to be a DH. That means Eric Chavez gets the start at third base.

Girardi said Chavez like others not in the lineup that night can often be heard working in the batting cages adjacent to the dugout and that's where Posada likely will spend part of his time in the hopes of figuring out the slow start, which Girardi said might be caused by the following:

"It just seems like he’s kind of in between. Sometimes it seems like he’s late on the fastball and early on the off-speed. Many times he’s made good pretty good contact and there has been some days where he hits the ball deep and hasn’t had a whole lot to show for it and that becomes frustrating as a player.

Still it's nowhere near as frustrating as being in the holding pattern Hughes currently finds himself in.