If Phil Hughes had pitched like this in The Bronx a year ago, he might still be a Yankee.
The right-hander manhandled the struggling Yankee lineup and was the beneficiary of the Twins’ late comeback in their 7-2 win at the Stadium on Sunday.
“I don’t think it means more than any other start,” Hughes said after allowing two runs over eight innings. “This game can be pretty cruel sometimes. I went through that last year, so you never take wins for granted, no matter what. So I try to view this as another win, a positive outing, and try to keep this thing going. Obviously, I have some history here, so there were some emotions before the game, but satisfaction postgame is equal to any other win.”
Hughes continued his resurgence, improving to 6-1. Last season, he gave up 17 of his 24 home runs at home and had a 6.32 ERA at the Stadium, just 3.88 on the road. Sunday, he didn’t give up a hit until Brett Gardner started the bottom of the fourth with a triple.
“One thing he stayed away from that we saw a lot last year — and he hasn’t really done it as much this year — is … long counts and a lot of foul balls,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “His cutter seems to be more consistent this year. On a number of occasions [in 2013], he’d be in the sixth and he’d be at 100 pitches and that wasn’t the case today.”
Instead, his 100 pitches got him through eight innings. The two runs and three hits Hughes surrendered all came in the fourth, when the Yankees seemed to have Hughes in trouble with bases loaded, no outs and a run already in.
But Hughes recovered and allowed just a sacrifice fly.
That’s something he didn’t do often enough in his final season with the Yankees, which led to both sides deciding to go in different directions when he hit free agency.
“You know how it is when you come back, you’ve been [in] a place and you move on and you come back, you want to do well.” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. “It’s human nature, the way it is in this game. It’s not like you’re here to try to show somebody they made a mistake. It’s baseball. Everybody moves on.”
Hughes, who signed a three-year, $24 million deal in the offseason, has gone at least seven innings in each of his last three starts and four of his last five.
“What we hoped would happen, happened,” Gardenhire said. “He was relaxed, got through the first inning and, honestly, didn’t try to overthrow the ball. And that’s what we’ve been seeing, just what everybody saw right there today. That’s what we’ve been seeing his last, what, four or five starts and it’s fun to watch.”