WELCOME BACK: Phil Hughes, making his first start of the season last night after a disappointing big league showing in 2008, blanked the Tigers through six innings, allowing two hits in an 11-0 Yankees win in Detroit.
By GEORGE A. KING III

DETROIT -- Bathing in the sugary taste of success after producing the best start by a Yankees pitcher this season, Phil Hughes returned to the gloomy days of last year.
After not being dealt for Johan Santana, something Hank Steinbrenner still bemoans, Hughes flopped, got hurt and flopped again. The lost year had some questioning if the former first-round pick would ever amount to much with the Yankees.
And they weren't alone.
"There were points last year I was pretty much lost," Hughes admitted. "I thought I had forgotten how to pitch."
Armed with a live fastball and a curveball that improved as last night's game progressed, Hughes hurled the Yankees to an 11-0 victory over the Tigers in front of 25,519 at Comerica Park.
If Hughes was lost last year, he found the way out of the darkness at a very big moment. His six shutout innings in which he allowed two hits, two walks and fanned six helped the Yankees (10-10) halt a season-high four-game losing streak and release mounting pressure in the Yankees' universe.
"It was the best I felt as a complete pitcher in a while," the 22-year-old right-hander said.
Try almost two years. Or when Hughes blew out a hamstring while working on a no-hitter against the Rangers on May 1, 2007, in Texas.
"Ages, and not a lot wins later," said Hughes, who was 5-3 in 2007 and 0-4 a year ago.
Hughes had to be sharp, because for six innings he traded zeroes with Edwin Jackson, the Tigers' hard-throwing right-hander. Joe Girardi planned to send Hughes out for the seventh because he was at 99 pitches. But when the Yankees plated 10 runs and the inning lingered on a 47-degree night, Girardi pulled his starter.
"That's the best I have seen him throw," Girardi said. "That was something we needed, they have a pretty good hitting lineup."
Hughes fanned Gerald Laird and retired Brandon Inge on a stress-free fly to right to strand Miguel Cabrera on second to end the second. Two innings later, he faced a serious jam when the Tigers loaded the bases with a hit batter, a single and a two-out walk. Hughes responded by inducing Josh Anderson to hit a grounder to the right side.
Hughes had a wonderful look at the 10-run seventh, a frame highlighted by Jose Molina getting a bunt down to build the first two runs and later drilling a grand slam. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Molina is the first player to do that in the same inning since Oakland's Sal Bando on May 7, 1975.
"That's part of the game," Molina said of his rare double.
Hughes is in the big leagues because Chien-Ming Wang is on the disabled list with hips that need to be strengthened. Nobody knows how long Wang will be out, but if last night was the start of something big for Hughes, he will stay.
"We want him to pitch great and stay in the rotation," Girardi said. "What you want as a manager is to have more starters throwing well than spots you have." One start doesn't mean Hughes has left last year in the past. Nor does it guarantee he will roll out 10 consecutive wins. What it does do is inject a huge dose of confidence. And that is something Hughes didn't come close to having last season.

 

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04292009/sports/yankees/hughes_comes_up_huge_in_yankees_rout_166784.htm

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