MLB

Yankees’ Hughes rebounds from flop vs. Mariners

BALTIMORE — Phil Hughes said his disastrous previous start wasn’t on his mind when he took the mound last night against the Orioles.

“Not really,” Hughes said. “I was always just trying to get that next guy.”

Sure, but even Hughes had to admit his last outing, when he gave up seven runs in just two-thirds of an inning against the Mariners was a factor last night — especially when he gave up a leadoff single to Nate McLouth.

“I was encouraged that I got the next three guys so I could get that last start out of my head a little bit,” Hughes said after the Yankees lost 3-2 in 10 innings at Camden Yards.

That’s more like it.

Though Hughes didn’t get the win he wanted, the two runs in six innings was a significant improvement.

“I thought he did OK,” manager Joe Girardi said. “He’s been in a rough spot. He’s come out of them before, so there was nothing to lead me to believe that he wouldn’t come out of it again.”

As usual, Hughes was hurt by the home run, as former teammate Chris Dickerson took him deep twice on fastballs. The first homer led off the bottom of the third and the second led off the bottom of the fifth.

He’s surrendered five home runs in his last three starts after avoiding the long ball in the three prior outings.

“I made two mistakes and they cost me two runs,” said Hughes, who didn’t factor in the decision. “But overall I felt a little out of rhythm.”

He was especially uncomfortable out of the windup, which he said made it difficult to attack batters the way he would have liked, but he was able to pitch out of trouble more than once.

A Jayson Nix error at short in the fifth on what should have been a double play grounder gave Baltimore runners on first and second with one out. Hughes responded by striking out Nick Markakis and getting Adam Jones on a comebacker.

“You look at last time and this is obviously better,” Hughes said. “I feel like I can still take some strides forward and not force myself into a high pitch-count so early. My goal next time out is to look to give us a deeper start.”