Yankees Struggling Offense Can't Make Up for Hughes' Mistakes

In his seven years in the majors, Phil Hughes has been a conundrum. Is he a budding superstar, an overrated Yankees phenomenon, or simply an average starter? There are moments in each of his seasons that have given claim to any of these.

The consensus is that the Yankees will allow Hughes, 27, to leave via free agency this off-season since he could garner a large offer from a National League team, where he appears best suited to pitch.

Saturday's 4-1 Yankees loss to the Minnesota Twins will be the type of game that may cause the Yankees fits in deciding whether to bring back Hughes, who allowed four runs, while striking out a season-high 10. Even in a such a performance, where he has often appeared unhittable, there are fundamental issues that raise concerns as to whether he can thrive with the Yankees.

The four runs he allowed came on home runs - bases-empty shots from Trevor Plouffe and Ryan Doumit and a two-run homer from Pedro Florimon in the eighth that put the game away.

Hughes has allowed 18 home runs this season, putting him in the bottom third in the majors in that category even though he has pitched less innings than most after getting a late start to the season because of a bulging disk in his back. Hughes entered Saturday's game with a .046 ground ball to fly ball ratio, the worst in baseball. Hughes did not pitch badly, but he again succumbed to the fly ball, an unforgiving trait for pitching at Yankee Stadium. In a different park perhaps Hughes would have thrived on Saturday. But at Yankee Stadium, where routine fly balls to right field can travel over the fence, it helped cost Hughes the game.

The Yankees took the lead in the first inning when the right fielder Ichiro Suzuki doubled. It was the 3,970th hit of his career, combining his Japanese league and Major League statistics. Suzuki scored on Robinson Cano's single up the middle, which almost glanced off Twins starter Samuel Deduno's foot.

The listless Yankees offense, ranked second to last in on-base plus slugging percentage in the American League entering Saturday's game, barely mustered any more offense against Deduno, and had just four hits in the final five innings of the game.