Hughes flirts with no-hitter in win over A's

OAKLAND, Calif. - The last time Phil Hughes had been this close, a freak hamstring injury derailed him from a chance at history.

A fluky chopped grounder did Wednesday night.

Hughes pitched seven innings of no-hit ball against the A's in a 3-1 victory before Eric Chavez broke up the bid by leading off the eighth with a smashed chopper that caught Hughes on his left arm.

The 23-year-old righthander had time to get Chavez but could not immediately locate the ball, which bounced high after hitting him and landed about 10 feet in front of the mound.

"First pitch fastball away,'' Hughes said. "Hit off my forearm. I thought it went straight up and obviously it didn't and I couldn't find it in time. Not really the way you want to give up a no-hitter but that's the way it goes.''

Jorge Posada tried to help Hughes locate the ball, but to no avail.

"He couldn't see it. he thought it was up and the ball's right in front of him,'' the catcher said. "I'm screaming, down down, but he couldn't see it.''

Hughes, who rarely shows emotion, looked down in disgust, his chance at recording the franchise's 11th regular-season no-hitter, and first since David Cone's perfect game against the Expos July 18, 1999, gone.

Unlike what many pitchers say, Hughes said he certainly was aware he was working on a no-hitter.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't,'' he said. "Obviously I knew I hadn't given up a hit. To have it end that way is kind of a bummer but it's the game and I'm happy to get out of here with a win.''

Chavez's hit snapped a streak of 20 straight A's Hughes retired after walking Daric Barton with one out in the first.

With the Yankees holding only a two-run lead, Hughes needed to rebound quickly and he did in the short term, striking out Kevin Kouzmanoff, which was Hughes' career-best 10th strikeout.

But a walk to Gabe Gross put runners on first and second with one out and Joe Girardi brought in Joba Chamberlain, officially named Mariano Rivera's eighth-inning setup man before the game.

Hughes, the California native whose parents were in attendance, left the mound to cheers from the crowd of 30,211 - many of them Yankee fans, many of them not - which he acknowledged by briefly grabbing the bill of his cap before stepping into the dugout.

Chamberlain, whose fastball reached 96 mph in 11/3 scoreless innings Tuesday, retired Adam Rosales on a fly to right, but Jake Fox's pinch-hit single to right brought in Chavez to make it 2-1. The bad fortune gave Hughes an impressive final line but one that minutes earlier looked as if it would be far better: 71/3 innings, one hit, one run with two walks and 10 strikeouts.

Hughes, ahead strike one to seemingly every batter, threw 101 pitches, 70 for strikes.

Rivera allowed two runners to reach in the ninth but recorded his sixth save.

"That's as good as it gets,'' Girardi said of Hughes. "His stuff was great tonight. Ahead in the count all night and he put them on the defense. His cutter was outstanding to the lefties, his curveball was great. His fastball command was great. That's a brilliant performance."

It was the Yankees' second flirtation with a no-hitter this season. CC Sabathia no-hit the Rays for 72/3 innings April 10 before Kelly Shoppach broke up the bid. Girardi disclosed afterward that Sabathia, on a pitch count, would have been removed regardless of what Shoppach did.

Hughes, who threw a career-high 108 pitches in his first start last week against the Angels, probably wasn't going anywhere and his stuff suggested he might get to finish what injury prohibited him from doing nearly three years ago.

In Hughes' second career start, May 1, 2007, he no-hit the Rangers for 61/3 innings in Arlington before leaving with a strained left hamstring (then-Ranger Mark Teixeira was at the plate).

The righthander said he thought back to that night in Texas.

"After I got that first out in the seventh I was just hoping I didn't go down with something else,'' he said. "That's all I was thinking about it. It's always nice to have stuff like that [a no-hitter], but it's just so hard to do, any little thing can happen and it did.''

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Alex Rodriguez tripled to right-center, his second triple of the season, and Robinson Cano brought him in with his first triple of the season. Posada's slow groundout to first brought Cano home to make it 2-0.

Hughes struck out Cliff Pennington with a 90-mph fastball to lead off the game and walked Barton. Ryan Sweeney's fielder's choice moved Barton to second but Hughes struck out Kurt Suzuki with a 94-mph fastball to end the inning and the A's wouldn't have a runner at second again until Chavez reached in the eighth. The Yankees made it 3-1 in the ninth on Brett Gardner's two-out single.