This is the first game in a while that was not about the pitching.  Phil Hughes (8-1) got his eighth win (tied-1st with David Price and Clay Buchholz) of the season in a rocky start.  He went 6 innings and gave up 9 hits and 3 runs.  The numbers aren’t terrible, but most of them came early in the game.  Hughes came to his normal form toward the end of his outing.  He only struck out four on the night.

“The stuff wasn’t great, my command was off,” said Hughes.  “You are going to have those days.  You hope you score some runs.  They were more aggressive and didn’t get too deep.  I made decent pitches when I had to and got a little help from the umpire, too.”

Kevin Millwood pitched for Baltimore.  He entered this game 0-6 with a 4.29 ERA and was looking for his first win of the season.  The Yankees made sure to prevent that and attacked Millwood early.  Derek Jeter got on base with a walk to start the game and Nick Swisher connected with the first pitch he saw and hit it out of the park in center field.  Swisher had a big night at the plate going 3-for-6 with 5 RBI.  Three of those RBI came off a bases clearing double in the seventh inning to make the score 10-3.

“It was a total team effort,” says Swisher.  “It’s nice to get back on track, especially after that Toronto series.”

Curtis Granderson broke the game open in the third inning when the score was just 2-0 Yankees.  He hit a grand slam into right field to make the game 6-0. 

“I was trying to battle with two outs and it paid off,” says Granderson.  “I got good wood on it and it went out of the ballpark.”

Mark Teixeira had a huge night coming out of an 0-for-12 slump.  In his first AB he connected for a single.  In his second AB he hustled after hitting a ball into the teeth of the shift and beat out the throw to first for another single.  He walked two times after that and then in the 7th inning he connected with a two run shot to make the score 12-3 Yankees.

“It was a good game as a team.  Curtis’ (Granderson) big home run got us all going,” says Teixeira.  When asked about himself, Tex said, “Any time you help the team win, it feels good.  It’s all about winning games here.”

“Getting away from it for a day, just being able to relax your mind, I think it helps players a lot,” says Joe Girardi of Teixeira.  “Tex is a professional, but as a player you still want to have those bounce back games.”

“He got a couple of bleeders, man, and that’s what gets you going,” Swisher said of Tex.  “He got the big home run in the game; it’s coming, boys.  It’s coming.”

The only Yankee that seemed to really struggle in this game was Chad Gaudin.  He pitched two innings and gave up five hits and four runs.  He turned a 12-3 lead into a 12-7 one.  He raised his ERA to a 8.53.  If Gaudin keeps these performances up, I would not be surprised if he is DFAed for the second time this season.