Hughes is huge to beat Twins

MINNEAPOLIS -- Maybe the odd man out will be Bartolo Colon.

Phil Hughes certainly is making a convincing case it shouldn't be him.

The Yankees got a momentary reprieve from a decision about their six-man rotation when Freddy Garcia went on the disabled list Friday afternoon.

But after next Saturday's doubleheader in Baltimore, barring an injury, the Yankees will have to decide.

Hughes, bad early this season before being put on the DL, then not terribly impressive immediately after coming off it, is making a statement.

His most emphatic one came Friday night against the Twins.

In a magnificent 72/3-inning outing, Hughes was the best he has been since the first half of last season, allowing only two hits and at one stretch retiring 14 straight in an 8-1 victory at Target Field.

"He's definitely making it difficult," Joe Girardi said. "It might come to the point where we get past that doubleheader . . . if we feel a guy needs to skip a start, we'll do that. But I don't know what we're going to do. It's complicated. I don't have to make a decision yet."

Hughes built on what he had done of late, coming in 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA in his previous three starts.

The first hit Friday came from the Twins' second batter, Trevor Plouffe, who swung at what looked like an eye-high fastball and hit it to leftfield for a home run and a 1-0 lead.

Hughes didn't give up another hit until Luke Hughes' one-out single in the eighth. In that stretch, the pitcher retired 14 straight from the second inning through the end of the sixth.

"That's the game plan," Hughes said of mixing his pitches, which Girardi pointed to as the key to his recent success. "Moving my fastball in and out, changeups when I need to, cutters when I need to and curveballs in the right situations. It just seems like we're picking the right pitches at the right time right now."

Hughes credited that to catcher Russell Martin, who also helped the pitcher at the plate, hitting two home runs to give him 15 this season.

"He's pitching right now," Martin said. "He's hitting his spots and he's trusting his fastball and that's a big key for him."

Of his two home runs in a park that doesn't yield a great many of them, Martin said: "I was seeing the ball [well], I just kind of simplified my approach, just going up there and swinging the bat hard. See the ball, hit the ball."

Martin had three hits and three RBIs and Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira each had two hits. Teixeira had three RBIs to give him 1,000 in his career, a milestone with meaning for the first baseman, who entered the season as one of only three major-leaguers to reach 30 homers and 100 RBIs in each of the last seven seasons. Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez are the others.

"It's a pretty nice number," Teixeira said of 1,000. "It's probably the stat I'm most proud of, being able to drive in 100 runs every year."

Teixeira is second on the Yankees with 33 homers and 94 RBIs, second to Granderson (34 and 96) in both categories.

As for Hughes, the righthander knows the speculation that has been swirling about his future in the rotation but he said he has ignored it. The way he's pitching, not only does it seem unlikely he'll be removed from the rotation, he's making a push to No. 2 status in the postseason.

"It's not even my focus, playoffs or next rotation around and who's going to be the guy left out," Hughes said. "It's not really anything I think about. But I'm happy with how the last few starts have gone and that's really all I think about and the next one I get."