Just when you thought it was safe to watch again, another Yankee rotation fatality hit the starting staff in an early season plagued by injury after injury. What was proving to be a special night in rookie sensation Phil Hughes’ career ended with a wince and a slow walk to the dugout in the 7th inning of a no-hit gem. Making his second career start, Hughes flashed all the poise and maturity worthy of the hype as he dominated the Texas Ranger lineup during his quest for immortality. Hughes was so close to the record books, so close to carving a career spot into the Yankees rotation, so close to being embraced as a true Yankee, but in the end, he was only so close. One out into the seventh inning of a 9-0 lead, Hughes grimaced over in pain prompting Joe Torre and the training staff to all but teleport to the mound at light speed fearing the worst. What Phil Hughes couldn’t finish, his hamstring did. Phil Hughes left the game with a line reading 6.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K only to be faced with two numbers no one wanted to see, 4-6 weeks on the disabled list.

The Red Sox handed New York their 8th loss in 9 games taking the series finale and leaving the struggling Yankees in last place to end April for the first time since 1985. Making his second start of the season, Chien-Ming Wang, took his second consecutive loss after turning in an uncharacteristic performance. The groundball induced outs typical to Wang’s outings were overshadowed by the longball as David Ortiz and Alex Cora hit homeruns that would prove to be too much for the Yankees offense to overcome.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for the slumping New York Yankees, Julio Lugo’s first inning line drive off the leg of Jeff Karstens sent another blow to the struggling rotation. Karstens who was making his second start of the season, will make his second trip to the disabled with a fractured right fibula. But what looked like another misfortune to the Yankees recent struggles became an opportunity for Kei Igawa to regain his lost spot in the rotation. As Igawa emerged from the bullpen for his first relief appearance of the season, he promptly drew hope getting David Ortiz to ground into a double play. Over the next six innings, Igawa pitched a gem, holding the Red Sox lineup to two hits and no runs as the Yankees snapped their seven game losing streak with a much needed performance by a New York starter.

Rivalry Series 2 began in New York on Friday as the Yankees played host to the first place Boston Red Sox. It was the debut of Dice-K at Yankees Stadium and the last of the anticipated matchups against former countrymen in Hideki Matsui. But for the fans of New York, the matchup was the furthest thing from their minds as the struggling Yankees came home carrying a 6 game losing streak. The team looked to their best starter, Andy Pettitte to right the ship and bring New York back to their winning ways. But on another cold night in April, the Red Sox literally walked to victory over struggling pitching staff, closing the game out of reach in the ninth in an 11-4 win that featured two bases loaded walks.

Resting comfortably within the confines of a Hall of Fame showcase lie the bloody socks that have not only allowed self promoter Curt Schilling market his 2004 postseason performance as legendary but have also reloaded the smoking guns of conspiracy controversy. During the broadcast of Wednesday nights game between the Red Sox and Orioles, Baltimore play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne questioned the credibility of Schilling’s bloody socks causing a media storm of enormous proportions to develop in response to his comments. The nonchalant musings of Thorne and Jim Palmer during the telecast came to life courtesy of clubhouse chatter started by Red Sox catcher and well known sarcastic, Doug Mirabelli. “It was painted,” Thorne said. “Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR.” The backlash that followed was anything but nonchalant as all walks of life have chimed in on the story. Thorne himself has since retracted the statement, leading on that he mistook Mirabelli’s sarcasm for truth.

New York had a brief glimpse into the future as twenty year old rookie phenom Phil Hughes took the mound to make his Major League debut against the Toronto Blue Jays. In a questionable move by the organization to sidestep the planned development course of baseball’s number one pitching prospect, the call-up came as an inevitable move with the Yankees current injury plagued rotation. Following a successful 2006 season split between single and double A, where he compiled a 12-6 record with a 2.16 ERA and 168 strikeouts in 148 innings, the first round pick (23rd overall) in the 2004 draft got the call from AAA Scranton Wilkes-Barre after posting a 2-1 record with a 3.34 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 16 innings pitched.

Alex Rodriguez may not have had an extra base hit in the series finale in Boston, but he more than made up for it in Tampa Bay. Rodriguez tied a Major League record for homeruns in the month of April Monday night, hitting his 13th and 14th homeruns at Tropicana Field. He continued his tear through the month of April getting four hits and continuing a season long hit streak that has raised his batting average up to an even .400. A-Rod also added to his Major League leading total of 34 RBIs, a record for the month of April previously held by Albert Pujols (32) set a year ago. With six more games to play in the month, Alex Rodriguez is looking to easily write himself into the record books for not only the month of April but for the entire season. Currently, he has 14 homeruns and 34 RBIs in 18 games, which puts him on pace to hit 108 homeruns and 263 RBIs give or take a few, which is to say the least, impressive. What more can I say, I mean if Albert Belle can hit 267 homeruns during a season on World Series Baseball a la Sega Genesis circa 1995, who is to say that A-Rod’s current pace is anything more than laughable? Oh yea? Prove it.

Say it ain’t so, a sweep in the opening rivalry series of the 2007 season at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. As bad as that sounds, what was more discomforting was the back-to-back-to-back-to-back homerun performance started by Manny Ramirez in the third inning, a record first time in Red Sox history. But as the dust begins to settle on an unmemorable weekend, I have a feeling Yankees fans have a little more to smile about than most would think.

Game 2 at Fenway courtesy of the insidious monster that is FOX baseball and the horrendous ensemble of a cast featuring: the voice that only loves to hear itself talk (Joe Buck); the shell of a man still dripping wet from a Deion Sanders ice bucket shower (Tim McCarver); the Peter Gammons wannabe (Ken Rosenthal); the head of hair that could contain a forest fire (Jeanne Zelasko); and the career minor league catcher dubbed “The Skipper” (Kevin Kennedy). And with that being said, there was an actual game that played in between the meticulously crafted storylines. Although, the outcome favored the Red Sox, the Yankees were able to rough up another star pitcher in the Boston rotation, this time stealing five runs off of Josh Beckett. There were no homeruns from A-Rod, but he did manage to extend his hit streak to 16 games with another extra base hit. After that, the game was only highlighted by a Big Papi homerun that propelled the Red Sox to their second consecutive rivalry victory.

Game 1, Series 1 for the season’s always anticipated rivalry matchup, Yankees-Red Sox. In a game highlighted by Alex Rodriguez’s assault on the April record books and a comfortable Yankees lead, it was a late inning rally by the Red Sox against baseball’s most dominant closer that would prove to overtake the headlines of the first meeting. The New York offense put together six runs, including 2 more homeruns from Alex Rodriguez, but it was the bullpen that failed in the eighth, allowing 5 runs in the Red Sox rally. New York starter Andy Pettitte looked sharp pitching 6.1 innings and allowing only 2 runs on eight hits before turning the ball over to the bullpen. But when Joe Torre found himself in trouble in the eighth, he looked to a well rested Mariano Rivera for a 2 inning save. Even with Rivera on the mound, the Yankees were unable to escape with a lead as a bloop single, reminiscent of Luis Gonzalez’s 2001 Game 7 World Series winner, put the Red Sox ahead leaving Rivera to blow his second save opportunity in two chances.