Encouraging start from Hughes
By Jack O’Connell
Phil Hughes departed Thursday night’s game on the losing side of the ledger, but it was nonetheless an encouraging outing for him. After two dismal starts, Hughes pitched with determination and gave the Yankees seven strong innings in which he allowed six hits, did not walk a batter and struck out six.
Unfortunately for Hughes, Diamondbacks lefthander Patrick Corbin was a little mite better. His string of 16 scoreless innings, the longest in the major leagues, came to an end when Robinson Cano homered off a 0-and-1 pitch in the sixth inning to cut the Yankees’ deficit to 2–1.
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Both of the runs off Hughes were the result of home runs as well, not surprisingly. He gave up dingers to Didi Gregorius in the third and Martin Prado in the sixth. That makes five home runs Hughes has yielded in 10-plus innings at Yankee Stadium this year. Hughes’ predilection for fly balls hurt him at the homer-friendly Stadium, but on the positive side is that all five taters have come with the bases empty.
Phil had a good fastball this time out as it was consistently in the 91-to 93-miles-per-hour range and a sharp-breaking slider, a pitch that seemed to have abandoned him in his previous starts. He did not deserve a losing decision, and as it turned out he didn’t get one.
The Yankees threatened to get Hughes off the hook in the eighth, but a rough call against Cano foiled a rally. Batting with the bases full and one out against righthander David Hernandez, the losing pitcher Wednesday night, Cano was struck in the right leg with a 3–2 pitch. Plate umpire Ron Kulpa ruled that Cano swung through the pitch before it hit him for a strikeout. Henderson then struck out Kevin Youkilis.
But true to history, the Diamondbacks have trouble getting the final out in games at the Stadium. One out into the ninth, Francisco Cervelli homered to left off J.J. Putz to tie the score. That was an impressive blow by Cervelli considering that he committed an error in the top of the inning on an interference call when Gregorius hit him in the mitt on his left hand with a swing of the bat.
