MLB

Hughes pitches three shutout innings in Yankees loss

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Joe Girardi says the meat of his evaluation process doesn’t begin until each starting candidate has made two outings and knocked off a winter coat of rust.

However, Phil Hughes knows the manager and pitching coach Larry Rothschild haven’t been blindfolded to this point.

“It’s like saying going to a job interview and the first five minutes don’t count,” Hughes said following his second outing (first start) of the spring Sunday at Hammond Stadium where the Twins topped the Yankees, 5-1, in a split-squad game. “You are still going to be judged on the early results. They really want to see what you are going to do. Later on is fine but I still want to come out early and show something. Nothing really changes, I expect a lot out of myself. Whether they see it any differently, I am still going to go out with the same attitude.”

What Hughes displayed was an improvement from his first game on March6 when he had trouble getting the fastball down.

Sunday, his velocity was up (averaged 91 mph), the curveball was much better, the cutter arrived late and he mixed in four change-ups.

“I didn’t make every pitch perfect but I felt I threw a lot of strikes,” said Hughes, who located the strike zone with 24 of the 36 pitches he threw. “I kept the ball down.”

Like a lot of pitchers Hughes doesn’t need the speed gun readings flashing in front of his eyes to judge his pitches. Instead, he reads hitters’ swings and how they react to the pitch.

“The fastball was good and it was jumping on hitters a bit and that’s a positive thing,” said Hughes, whose fastball stayed between 90 and 92 mph and reached 93 which was an improvement. He would like to add a tick to the fastball but won’t attempt to create the velocity like he did last year which may have resulted in the shoulder injury.

“I was happy for the most part. Obviously you aren’t going to be perfect but overall it was a step forward from the last time.”

On March 6, Hughes had to leave before finishing two innings against the Pirates because of an elevated pitch count. Sunday, he added 15 pitches in the bullpen.

Hughes is competing against Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda and Freddy Garcia for three spots in Girardi’s rotation.