The Baseball Desert

Monday, July 12, 2004

El Duque

I logged on to MLB.com last night to watch the Devil Rays try to avoid a sweep in the Bronx, and was happy to learn (with apologies to Yankee fans who might be worried about his injury) that Mike Mussina wasn't pitching and that the Yankees had called up Orlando Hernandez to make an emergency start.

Although I'm not a big fan of the Yankees, I've always loved watching El Duque pitch, with that high leg-kick of his and an array of different pitches and speeds which allow him to always keep the hitter guessing. Hernandez gave up just five hits over five innings, which, combined with the 15 hits (including five home runs) that the Yankees rapped out, was enough to give him his first win in the majors since 2002. Whether he will prove to be the El Duque of old remains to be seen, but I'm sure that the Yankee management - given Jose Contreras's somewhat enigmatic showing so far - was delighted to see him give them some new options at the back end of the rotation.