Phil Hughes rebounds after rough first inning to beat White Sox

Phil Hughes was going through another of his first-inning hiccups, struggling with his fastball command and watching the White Sox spray the ball all over the field in the stifling heat.

So he knew he had to make some in-game adjustments and calm things down quickly if he was going to be the workhorse the Yankees needed on this get-away afternoon.

With CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte going down with injuries Wednesday, the onus falls on Hughes to be one of the staff's most trusted starters until the others make it back, and he might've been too keyed up in the first inning Sunday.

"[Had to] just try to relax a little bit -- deep breaths," he said. "You are amped, it's a home game and sometimes it's a little tough. My location suffered a little bit because of that."

Hughes certainly settled in after that rough first, in which he yielded two runs and three hits. He allowed no runs and three hits in his final seven innings as the Yankees beat the White Sox, 4-2, in front of a sellout crowd of 48,324 at the Stadium on Old-Timers' Day.

Robinson Cano continued his aerial assault, smacking a tiebreaking two-run shot in the third inning after Eric Chavez launched a two-run homer in the second, as the Yankees earned a split of the four-game series.

They head to St. Petersburg, Fla., having won five of seven games on their final homestand before next week's All-Star break, and no one is hotter than Cano. His no-doubt-about-it home run was his 20th of the season and ninth in the last 14 games, and it gave the Yankees a major league-leading 124 home runs in 78 games.

That was all the offense Hughes (9-6, 4.29) needed as he continued to pitch effectively. He is 5-1 with a 2.59 ERA in his last six starts and 8-2 with a 3.34 ERA in his last 11 starts after going 1-4 with a 7.48 ERA in his first five outings this season.

Hughes struck out eight in eight innings before giving way to Rafael Soriano, who pitched an uneventful ninth to collect his 18th save in 19 opportunities.

Joe Girardi thinks an improvement with Hughes' fastball was the major factor in turning things around, starting in the second inning.

"I thought he made some mistakes with the location of his fastball and then he corrected it," Girardi said. "That was the big difference. He threw an outstanding game in the heat, stayed consistent, and being able to give us eight innings on a day like this is amazing. So I'm extremely pleased."

Hughes noticed an immediate shift in results after he started cruising in the second.

"I was actually hitting the glove and not missing by a couple of feet like in the first inning," he said. "The first inning has been frustrating the last few times. Really all year. We've got to do something to kind of manage that a little bit but [still] have some adrenaline. But a happy balance, settle those emotions a little bit and things like that.

"But once I kind of settled down a little bit, I was able to hit some more spots and kind of work the count the way I wanted to, and not the way they wanted to."

After the Yankees lost the services of Sabathia and Pettitte, Ivan Nova, Hiroki Kuroda and Hughes combined to allow three earned runs in 221/3 innings and strike out 24 during the White Sox series. The Yankees, who have gone 27-9 to move a season-high 18 games over .500, will need more of those outings from Hughes and the other two while Sabathia and Pettitte mend.

"They can't make Andy's starts, they can't make CC's starts," Girardi said. "But he can make good Phil Hughes starts. He has stepped up and pitched well, where he struggled a bit in the beginning with a lot of our other starters as well.

"For Phil, he didn't really pitch last year much and I think it took him some time to get going. But he's stepped up and been really effective for us 10 out of the last 12 starts and been really good."