Yanks Try To Get The Offense Going Against Jays' Happ

Believe it or not, there is only 11 regular season games remaining this season for the New York Yankees, and with every game that goes by, 11 games is likely all that remains. As they enter play Wednesday just 3.5 games back of the second Wild Card, the Yankees play lately have been bad enough to keep them out of the playoffs.

The Yankees finally got a good start from a starting pitcher on Tuesday when Andy Pettitte held the Toronto Blue Jays to one-run on six hits over 6.2 innings, but that one run, plus another on a Rajai Davis homerun, was too much for the Yankees to overcome as they fell to the Jays 2-0.

After the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi denied that the team's effort had anything to do with the poor play, but Pettitte did say that the Yankees need to start playing with a sense of urgency if they really want to make the playoffs. He has was asked if he thought the Yanks were playing with urgency.

"I hope so," Pettitte said. "Obviously, when you get shut out, it doesn't look like it, but if there is not [urgency] with some of these guys, they are playing the wrong sport and are definitely in the wrong organization. You just have to find a way to get a win and win some ballgames. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We have to come out and play and play good."

Tonight's Lineup at Toronto:

Granderson CF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Wells RF
Reynolds 1B
Nunez 3B
Murphy C
Ryan SS
Hughes RHP

Pitching Preview: 

A couple minutes before I got to writing this section of the pregame post, I realized that Phil Hughes is on the mound for the Yankees tonight -- I know, right. Those are usually words that no one wants to hear on gameday.

Hughes has not been good at all for the Yankees this season as he enters Wednesday night's start against the Blue Jays with a 4-13 record and 5.07 ERA in 27 starts this season, and he's 0-4 with an ERA of 6.39 in his last 1- appearances for the Yanks.

After being skipped in the rotation for one outing, Hughes returned to the rotation to take the mound against the Baltimore Orioles last Thursday. Although he started the game, Girardi still decided to piggyback him with David Huff, with each pitcher going just over three innings. Hughes gave up just one run on three hits, but Girardi still made the change.

"After having not pitched a lot in the last couple of weeks, command was my biggest concern," Hughes said on Thursday. "It was pretty good. I didn't walk anybody and I was throwing a lot of strikes, so I was happy with that."

On the mound for the Blue Jays to someone close to being their Phil Hughes, in left-hander J.A. Happ, who has been very ineffective against the Yankees this season, going 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA over three starts. Happ hasn't completed six innings in six straight starts dating back to Aug. 17, and he's failed to get out of the fifth inning in three of his last four.

"I'm just trying to prove to myself more than anything," Happ said after his last start on Thursday. "You want to keep the team in the game and you want to have respect. I'm thinking about the team more than I'm thinking about anybody else analyzing me. I hope to go out and finish strong, that's for sure."

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