Clearly Phil Hughes has been on fire. He's 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA this season. He's starting to settle into being a starter and that is great news. Last year he made his comeback in the bullpen and I believe he gained an enormous amount of confidence from his experience in the pen. Something the bullpen forces pitchers to do is throw strikes and use your fastball efficiently. That is exactly the gameplan Phil Hughes had last night. He relied heavily on his fastball and made the A's prove they could hit the fastball before showing them any of his other pitches. What that does is "hide" his other pitches to keep them guessing later on. So a batter will have to keep that curveball in the back of his mind, but still need to protect against the fastball. Now when a batter has that much going through his mind it's extremely difficult to focus and subsequently get a hit.
Another good sign from Phil Hughes was that he attacked the strike zone. He threw 101 pitches and 70 of those pitches were strikes. If he can continue to throw strikes and record outs, he will be a force to be reckoned with. The reason Roy Halladay is so effective is because he throws strikes and makes batters swing the bat.
Lastly Phil Hughes has great stuff. Watching him last night was a real treat. He had a sharp fastball and his curveball fell off the table (if you don't understand that what happens when a ball falls of the table?) I'm really happy that Phil Hughes is coming along. I would expect him to have a really good season.
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