Hughes adjusting to the bigs (updated)

I don't mind the Orioles running on the Red Sox's catchers. In fact, I encourage it wholeheartedly. But any chance it could be one of their more fleet-footed guys? Not so fast, Matt Wieters and Ty Wigginton. (See what I did there?) Take away the home runs, and Brad Bergesen is having a pretty good start. Boston 2, Orioles 1. Jonathan Van Every? To straightaway center? I probably would have picked van every other player in the Red Sox's lineup before I chose him. (See what...yes you did.) Instant update: Before I could send this entry, the Red Sox added another run in the fourth on J.D. Drew's RBI double. Boston 3, Orioles 1. Instant update II: And after I sent it, Adrian Beltre doubled over Adam Jones' head. Boston 4, Orioles 1. Rhyne Hughes understood that the level of competition and the challenges would increase significantly after he joined the Orioles, but couldn't he have one game without the Red Sox or Yankees? Just one? "I was talking to my folks back home about it. I've face, in a short amount of time that I've been up here, four or five All-Star pitchers," he said, grinning. "I was telling somebody that I know it's the big leagues and you're not going to have an easy day ever, but yeah, they've run a few aces out there that I've had to face." He struck out against Daisuke Matsuzaka to end the second inning. I asked Hughes if the Red Sox are pitching him differently here after his two starts in Fenway. Word, and video, get out pretty quickly. "It's been kind of the same stuff," he said. "They might have come up and in with fastballs a little bit because I didn't hit that pitch real well the last time I faced them. And (John) Lackey threw me a lot of off-speed stuff last night, but he's a good, veteran pitcher, a guy who goes out there and battles and finds a way to get you out. "That's one thing I'm going to have to learn to do is make adjustments pitch by pitch with each at-bat. I talked to a buddy of mine, (Ben) Zobrist last year and he was talking to one of the veteran hitters about, how do you stay so good for so many years? And he said it's just about making adjustments because guys are going to continue to pitch you differently and pitch you better and try to find a weakness and exploit it. You constantly have to make adjustments. "The more and more we play these teams, the more they're going to see me and they'll be making adjustments, so I've got to do the same thing."



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