MLB

First start a Huff spot for Yankees lefty

The Yankees are fighting for their playoff lives after two disastrous losses to the Red Sox and Saturday turn to a lefty who hasn’t started a game in the majors since 2012.

Good luck, David Huff.

Manager Joe Girardi called Huff into his office this week to tell him he’d be taking Phil Hughes’ spot in the rotation, and that meant starting against Boston.

Huff understood what was in store.

“He just said to go out and do what I’ve been doing,” Huff said before Friday’s 12-8 loss to the Red Sox in The Bronx. “To me, it’s just another start.”

Not to the Yankees, who will be coming off perhaps their two worst losses of the year. Huff emerged as a candidate to take over after his excellent work out of the bullpen since being recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last month. He has given up just one run in 15 innings since being called up.

Still, he didn’t compile those numbers against a torrid Red Sox team in a pivotal game at Yankee Stadium.

“I’m not trying to play it up into anything different,” Huff said. “When that happens, I’d probably end up being too fine with my pitches instead of attacking.”

He has been stretched out to 110 pitches at various points this season and started 12 games for SWB, but Girardi thinks 90-100 is more realistic for Saturday.

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild has stressed to Huff the same thing Girardi has tried to: Treat Saturday the same way he has treated each of his other recent outings.

Two of his best performances came against the Blue Jays and White Sox, a far cry from these Red Sox.

“[The Red Sox] have been around and they know what to look for and tendencies pitchers have,” Huff said. “Other teams can be young and swing at pitches you want them to.”

Rothschild has tried to keep things simple.

“If you make pitches, you get people out,” he said. “He’s commanding the ball. His changeup has been good, and his cutter has been good.”

It may sound like a simple formula, but the atmosphere and importance of Saturday makes it anything but.

“I’ll probably address that a little bit, but it’s like the elephant in the room,” Rothschild said. “You don’t want to make it sound like it’s bigger than it is. You just want to make sure he’s ready to make pitchesand lets go of the ball the way he can.”

Huff welcomes the challenge, saying he is “about as confident as I’m going to be. … If you go in without confidence, you’re probably going to get shelled.”