Hughes just can't seal the deal

Though hit much harder in his previous start against Boston, Phil Hughes lumped that outing and last night's in the same category: Not very good.

"I just need to do better," he said. "These last couple outings I haven't been good, especially with my command. It's something that I need to work on and hopefully can turn around."

To be clear, Hughes wasn't good and wasn't horrible in his 52/3 innings against the Mets. He allowed four runs, eight hits and three walks and struck out seven in the 5-3 loss.

The frustration was that all of the runs he gave up came after two men were out. In fact, Hughes (5-1, 2.72) had two outs and none on base in both the first and third innings and wound up giving up a total of three runs.

"You get off to a good start in the inning and then you can't seem to close it out is definitely frustrating," he said.

On a night in which the Yankees didn't hit very much, it proved costly.

Hughes left Monday's start against the Red Sox with a 6-5 lead - he'd get a no-decision in the 11-9 victory - but received no such backing against the Mets as the Yankees went 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13.

Still, Hughes was more focused on what he didn't do, primarily in the first and third innings. "It seems like those two bad innings were like mirror images of each other," he said.

After Hughes retired the first two Mets batters of the game, Jason Bay pulled a double past Alex Rodriguez for the first of his four hits and Ike Davis worked a seven-pitch walk. David Wright sent a 2-and-2 pitch back up the middle for a single and a 1-0 lead. Angel Pagan made it 2-0 when he shattered his bat on a bloop single to left.

Hughes retired Jose Reyes and Luis Castillo to start the third, just as he did in the first. But Bay singled and Davis walked, just as he did in the first inning. Wright then singled up the middle to make it 3-0.

The Yankees finally got on the board against Mike Pelfrey in the sixth on Francisco Cervelli's RBI infield single, but Hughes gave the run back in the bottom of the inning - with two outs, of course - though it was a tough earned run.

Pagan started the inning with a fly to left that Randy Winn badly misplayed down the line, a play generously scored a double because the outfielder never touched the ball.

"I missed it, it's as simple as that," Winn said. "That play I should have made, and I missed it."

Pagan went to third on Rod Barajas' groundout to first. After Hughes struck out Jeff Francoeur for the second out, he got ahead of pinch hitter Alex Cora 1-and-2, but Cora singled through the hole into rightfield to increase the Mets' lead to 4-1.

"Just consistently, hitting my spots, I haven't been doing that," Hughes said. "For the most part it's been a command problem."