SLIP & SLIDE: Brett Gardner can’t come up with the ball on an RBI triple by Andre Ethier in the third inning of the Yankees’ 6-0 loss to the Dodgers in the second game of a doubleheader. L.A. battered starter Phil Hughes (inset) in the nightcap. The Yankees won the opener, 6-4, behind stellar play at the plate and in the field by Ichiro Suzuki. (
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This time, it wasn’t the home run that ruined Phil Hughes’ night. Instead, it was five first-inning singles, a pair of doubles in the third and two more hits in the fifth.
Regardless of the details, it was another subpar outing from Hughes in the Yankees’ 6-0 loss to the Dodgers, as Los Angeles salvaged a split of yesterday’s split doubleheader in The Bronx following the Bombers’ 6-4 victory in the afternoon.
Hughes — a free agent at the end of the season — allowed five runs in six innings and fell to 3-6. Hughes has won just once in his last seven starts, and his ERA ballooned to 5.09.
When asked when he needed to start seeing more consistency out of Hughes, manager Joe Girardi said, “We need all our players to be consistent,” Girardi said. “He’s struggling with that.”
Though Ivan Nova is pitching well at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Michael Pineda’s rehab is going well, Girardi said Hughes’ spot is not in jeopardy.
“I haven’t really thought about moving Phil out of the rotation,” Girardi said.
Hughes also said it’s not on his mind.
“My number one priority is pitching well every five days,” Hughes said. “That’s really all I worry about.”
The day got off to a pretty good start for the Yankees, who were playing host to the Dodgers for the first time since the 1981 World Series, with manager Don Mattingly in the visitors’ dugout.
There was a chant from the Bleacher Creatures to the former first baseman, a brief video tribute and other mentions of his name throughout the doubleheader.
Each time, Mattingly tipped his cap to the crowd before his struggling team got the win in the nightcap.
“It was pretty cool,’’ Mattingly said of his first game at the new Stadium. “It’s a good feeling to know people appreciated the way you played. … I always said this is a special place.”
It’s a place where Cuban sensation Yasiel Puig felt comfortable in.
The right fielder hammered the ball all over the field in both games and homered to lead off the seventh against Adam Warren in the nightcap.
By then, Hughes already had coughed up five runs, and with the hapless Vernon Wells hitting cleanup and spare part Thomas Neal behind him, the Yankees’ offense had little chance of closing the gap — even against former Mets lefty Chris Capuano.
The Yankees collected just three singles and the only one that left the infield was Robinson Cano’s hit to center in the fourth. But he was gunned down at second by Andre Ethier on a play that seemed like it took Cano forever to get to the base.
“He just took too wide of a turn and I’m not sure why,” Girardi said.
It turned out to be the Yankees’ last hit of the night.
The loss took some of the luster away from a strong performance in the first game by Hiroki Kuroda, who improved to 7-5 by outpitching Dodgers’ starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Like Hughes, Kuroda, who has an impressive 2.78 ERA, hadn’t won since May — though he has pitched much better than his fellow right-hander.
Yesterday, Kuroda gave up two runs in the seventh and the Yankees held on, with Mariano Rivera picking up his 25th save after some shaky bullpen work from Preston Claiborne and, to a lesser degree, David Robertson in front of him.
But the doubleheader ended with another reminder of how easily the Yankees offense can go silent — and how even now, no one knows what to expect from Hughes, who can’t seem to survive when everything isn’t working.
“That is a craft,” Girardi said. “When you don’t have your best stuff, being able to get six or seven good innings. That’s something pitchers have to figure out.”
dan.martin@nypost.com