Hughes, Yankees bats go quietly vs. O's

Focus all you want on Phil Hughes and to an extent, that's fair.

Tuesday night in a 7-1 loss to the Orioles, the righthander, though showing improvement, was a long way from the pitcher general manager Brian Cashman said during the spring has "front end of the rotation" stuff.

Still, the bigger culprits, at least for one night, were the Yankees' bats, with Robinson Cano's continued struggles the biggest mystery. "It's strange to see," manager Joe Girardi said.

Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, of course, have started sluggishly, too, but the second baseman's difficulties are the most confounding.

Cano, who has put up MVP-caliber numbers the last two seasons, hit one ball on the nose but went 0-4, seeing his average dip to .255. Cano, with a combined 57 homers and 227 RBIs the last two years, stayed stuck at one home run and four RBIs this season.

By comparison, the first month of 2009, he hit .366 with five homers and 16 RBIs; in 2010, he hit .400 with eight homers and 18 RBIs and last season, it was .320, 8, 21.

"Whenever you see Robbie struggle, it's strange, whether it's a two-week period in the beginning of the season or whatever it is," Girardi said. "He hits a ball hard again tonight and gets nothing for it. But it's not the April and the early starts we've been accustomed to seeing, that's for sure."

Derek Jeter did have three hits Tuesday night, raising his average to .400, and Curtis Granderson slammed his ninth homer in the first inning. But that was it against Baltimore's Brian Matusz, who snapped a 12-game losing streak, winning for the first time since June 6, 2011. In his 14 starts since then -- leading into Tuesday night -- Matusz was 0-12 with a 10.47 ERA.

Matusz had been 2-5 with a 5.10 ERA in eight career starts against the Yankees, and he allowed one run and six hits in 61/3 innings in improving to 1-3, 4.67 this season.

The night also belonged to Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who won his 1,000th career game. No. 1 came across the street at the old stadium against Boston on April 7, 1992, when he managed the Yankees.

Hughes, who came in 1-3 with a 7.88 ERA, lasted 5 2/3, allowing four runs and four hits. He had a nasty curveball -- helping him strike out six to match a season high -- but two of the four Orioles hits went for home runs. Hughes was most upset with J.J. Hardy's two-run shot in the third that gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead. Boone Logan allowed an inherited runner to score that made it 4-1 in the sixth. Two unearned runs came in later in the inning on an ugly error by leftfielder Eduardo Nuñez on Nick Johnson's soft liner to make it 6-1. "I have to pull my weight around here, that's the bottom line," Hughes said.

Girardi said Hughes was "better" and the pitcher agreed.

Rodriguez, who bunted for a base hit but popped out swinging at a first pitch with the bases loaded to end the seventh, had his attention elsewhere, primarily a middle of the order that collectively had a rough first month and combined to go 2-for-12 Tuesday night; A-Rod had both hits.

"We each have to get better, there's no question in my mind that all three of us are going to get better," he said. "There's no question, I think Robbie's going to end up, when all is said and done, north of .300 with 25-30 [homers] and 100 [RBIs]. He's just too good, and I think Tex and I will also be very productive. Tonight, we weren't."