Hughes improves to 9-1, but not happy with effort

Phil Hughes wished for a do-over, another chance to make the perfect pitch to end a tiring sixth inning.

But the young pitcher could only watch as Houston crept back into the game on Tommy Manzella's two-out, two-run single that squirted up the infield grass and out of the reach of a ranging Derek Jeter.

"That was the most frustrating," said Hughes, who had given up a single and a double before Manzella's 10-pitch at-bat. "I had a chance to get [Geoff] Blum and he put a decent swing on that ball and dumped it into right-centerfield. That could have been the end of the inning and then the two-run swing could have been the end of the inning. Sometimes, it's maybe a ground ball right to the third baseman or shortstop and you're through six with one run. But it doesn't go that way sometimes."

The righthander admitted he didn't look as sharp as he would have liked during Sunday's 9-5 win at the Stadium, but in the end, it didn't matter. With some help from his teammates - namely Jorge Posada - Hughes improved to 9-1, tying Tampa Bay's David Price for the American League lead in wins.

Aside from a rocky start, in which he surrendered a run in the first inning for just the second time this season, Hughes masterfully worked his way out of trouble as the game went on, stranding runners in the third, fourth and fifth. But the Yankees' 7-1 lead began to dwindle in the sixth when Carlos Lee led off the inning with a single, Blum doubled and Manzella drove in a pair of runs.

The biggest blow, however, came off the bat of Kevin Cash, who ripped his second home run of the season over the leftfield wall to trim the Yankees' lead to 7-5.

"I should have pitched better than I did," said Hughes, who matched his season high in runs allowed, gave up seven hits and struck out six in 52/3 innings. "I haven't pitched great over the last four starts, but our offense has been so good that I'm able to keep us in the game."

"We've seen him pitch better, we've seen him go deeper into games, but he still did what he had to do," manager Joe Girardi said. "You're going to have those innings from time to time. It's going to happen. He got a couple pitches up that inning and it hurt him."

Despite Hughes' occasional missteps, the 23-year-old has consistently performed like a veteran and leads the Yankees' staff in wins. (Andy Pettitte is the closest with eight.) For that reason, many of his teammates believe Hughes should be a lock for next month's All-Star Game.

"I would hope so, that he's making plans [to attend]," said Posada, who caught Hughes for the first time since May 2. "Him and Andy, those are the two big guys to get in there."