Hughes makes case for staying in rotation

Jorge Posada wasn't the only Yankee who grasped a carpe-diem moment Saturday. Pitcher Phil Hughes, whose stock has roller-coastered through his injury-truncated season, was bullish through six innings in the Yankees' 9-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Whether the tidy four-hit, one-walk, two-run, six-strikeout performance solidified Hughes' presence in the starting rotation appears dependant -- temporarily, at least -- on how quickly a cut on Freddy Garcia's finger heals.

The tailgating among five potential starters -- all stacking up behind ace CC Sabathia -- combined with Hughes' up-and-down 2011 results, had cornered manager Joe Girardi in a planned announcement Sunday regarding who would be pulled from the rotation.

Except, as Girardi said, "Sometimes decisions have a way of working themselves out. Freddy [Garcia] has a little cut, so Freddy won't start [as planned Sunday]. A.J. [Burnett] is, and I move everybody up. The decision is made."

Mostly, anyway. "Our rotation for Kansas City [beginning Monday] will be [Ivan] Nova, Bartolo [Colon], CC," Girardi said. "Beyond that, I don't know anything."

So that leaves Hughes . . .

" . . . Just trying to execute my pitches and not have any other thoughts in my head," he said. "It's hard enough to pitch in a big-league game when you have a clear conscience, so I knew I couldn't let anything distract me.

"I'll prepare as if I'm going again in five days. I'll just try to stick around as long as I can in the rotation."

Saturday, his teammates provided Hughes the safety net of Posada's six-RBI day and some nifty defense. A lunging backhanded stop by first baseman Mark Teixeira on Casey Kotchman's hard grounder in the fourth prevented a run, and second baseman Robinson Cano had saved one in the second by climbing the invisible ladder to snag Sean Rodriguez's liner.

Hughes walked the tightrope of possible demotion well. Through five innings, he had allowed only two hits and a walk. Ahead 7-0 in the sixth, Hughes lamented "a little lapse in concentration" that resulted in Desmond Jennings' leadoff home run and Johnny Damon's triple, which resulted in a second run on Ben Zobrist's groundout.

"I'd like to have the sixth inning back," Hughes said, "to get out there and maybe put up another zero. That's my fault. I can't let that happen. I'm not satisfied with just six innings. But overall, it was a solid outing."

After a terrible start to his year and shoulder trouble that sent him to the disabled list for 84 games, Hughes is 3-3 with a 4.28 ERA and beginning, he said, to "almost remember in my head what it felt like" during the first half of his 2010 All-Star season.

What is expected of him now, he knows, simply is: "Pitch well. They don't care if I throw knuckleballs, just pitch well. Put up zeros."

Because, in the baseball marketplace, Triple-A is a bad rating.