Phil Hughes may be wishing there were only two outs in an inning.
For the second straight outing, the Yankees pitcher failed to close out innings and paid for it. He gave up three runs in last night’s 5-3 loss to the Mets after getting the first two batters of an inning out.
“Command-wise I was off today,” Hughes said. “It seems like the last couple of outings I get a quick two outs and can’t put the inning away. They took advantage and got off to an early lead and that was too much for us.”
Hughes ran into trouble in the first inning after sitting down the first two Mets. He gave up a double to Jason Bay, followed by a walk to Ike Davis and RBI singles by David Wright and Angel Pagan.
“That’s not the start you want to get off to,” Hughes said.
The pattern followed in the third inning when he again got outs out of Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo but then could not finish the inning. This time, Bay singled, Davis walked again and Wright knocked in another run.
The two-out RBIs plagued him in his last start last Monday against the Red Sox. Boston scored three runs in the fifth inning after Hughes got the first two men out.
Hughes picked up his first loss of the season last night and snapped an 11-game undefeated streak, dating back to July 30, 2009. He gave up eight hits in 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs with three walks and seven strikeouts, while throwing a career-high 117 pitches.
“He threw the ball pretty well,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It just seemed to be with two outs in those two innings he wasn’t able to get the third out and that’s what hurt him. It wasn’t like he gave up a seven- or an eight-spot. He kept us in this game.”
Hughes cruised in his first six starts, but has hit a rough patch in the last two weeks He is now 5-1 with a 2.72 ERA.
The 23-year-old is not worried about his inability to close out innings becoming a long-term trend.
“I don’t think there’s any mental thing behind it or anything like that,” Hughes said. “I just haven’t executed pitches when I need to with two outs. Unfortunately, they’ve strung some hits together and made me pay for it.”