The Yankees reached 10 games over .500 today and that was just one several events that took place at The Stadium. A-Rod (finally) hit number 500 of his career off of poor Kyle Davies who seemingly was only just traded from Atlanta to lowly Kansas City in order to give up that homerune (poor bastard). Today was also the return of Phil Hughes, whose solid and later shaky performance may not be as bad as it seemed, but more on that later. And also, of course, the Yanks bombed KC for 16 runs and continued their wooden assault on opposing pitching.

As for Hughes, he finished going 4.2 and gave up 7 hits and 6 earned after being given a 6-2 lead going into the 5th. He also struck out 5. The kid came out and had that wicked stuff that we can remember from May, but KC figured him out the second time around the order and began pelting the ball all over the field. Mainly, he continued trying to sneak his fastball in and the Roayls sniffed it out; without being able to make adjustments, little Phil was throwing BP.

What does this mean, exactly? It doesn't mean Hughes is Mike Pelfrey, or that he's going to channel Jaret Wright, but it does mean that he's going to have growing pains. He's only 21 years old people. Take this example: Felix Hernandez of the Mariners is the same age and has far more experience than Hughes. You may recall him throwing a one-hitter in Fenway earlier this year, but you won't recall his so-so and bad games. They're growing pains, and Phil will likely be better more often than he is bad. He's wasn't great in his debut this year, but came back with a near-no-hitter in Texas. Plus the Yankees were scoring runs, and pitchers have a tendency to pitch to the score a lot, meaning that they may throw more freely because they have a lead. Phil is way too young to do that, and also still not schooled on making adjustments to big-league lineups. He will be, though, and I was encouraged by what I saw.

On to the bats. Cano had 4 hits today, moving his AVG to .311. He's raised his BA 45 pts since July 1st and his struggles from the first half are a distant memory. Actually, all the offensive struggles have become a distant memory. Abreu hit .353 in July and knocked in 29 runs, a career high month. Not to mention the gargantuan month of Hideki Matsui, who slugged .735 and hit 13 homers (leading the majors) in July while knocking in 28. He was also named player of the month. Even Shelley Duncan was called up and already has 5 homers.

The offensive surge is important because it was missing early on in the year, and could have saved them a significant portion of the hole they dug themselves. While the pitching hasn't been perfect, it's been ok, and has been surviving. At this point, the Yankees are handling the "make-or-break" portion of their schedule as they are supposed to, going 16-7 since the all-star break, and 21-9 in their last 30. The bullpen is still an issue, and while I'll commend Cashman for not going through with the Gagne deal, there is still a gaping hole in the bullpen that will be hemmoraging should they make the playoffs. Joba Chamberlain is suppoed to be called up as a reliever, and my fellow Yankee fans and I will be praying that this will call-up will work. Joba has been annihilating every level he's played on, so we'll see where it goes.

With about 2 months left, the Yanks are 1.5 games out of the Wild Card and 7 behind Boston. There's reason for both optimism and worry, but far less than there was in May or even June. The month of August will take the Yankees on the road to Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, and Los Angeles, and will have them host Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit. This will be a monumentally difficult and telling month on what the Yankees will be doing come playoff time. The Yankees are 5 games below .500 on the road this year and will need all the offense and pitching they can muster against the upcoming schedule. My feeling is that with one more solid reliever they'll have a solid bullpen. What will be equally interesting is what Torre does now that Giambi is about to come back to the lineup, leaving him with a plethora of solid everyday players to choose from. If only one of them could pitch, right? Stay tuned.