Yankees' Hughes stifles A's
Associated Press
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OAKLAND, Calif. — When the ball bounded off of Phil Hughes' left forearm, he thought it would go straight up in the air. It glanced off his chest and instead dropped several feet in front of the mound.
He just plain lost track of it — and lost his no-hit bid, too.
Catcher Jorge Posada and others yelled to no avail. The pitcher finally saw Alex Rodriguez pointing. Too late.
Hughes took an impressive no-hit try into the eighth inning last night, losing it when Eric Chavez bounced a hard comebacker off the pitcher's forearm and chest in the New York Yankees' 3-1 win over the Oakland Athletics.
"To have it end that way is kind of a bummer. That's the game," Hughes said. "Yeah, frustrated. It's so hard to do, to throw a no-hitter. You don't get many opportunities to do it."
Hughes (2-0) struck out a career-high 10 in 8 1/3 innings in the Yankees' sixth straight win. He was in complete control until Chavez opened the eighth with that one-hopper back to the mound.
Hughes had little time to react, and the 23-year-old righty searched for the ball as Chavez hustled for a single.
"Sometimes the last place you look is right in front of you, or you look down at your feet. He was looking for the baseball and just couldn't find it," manager Joe Girardi said.
Hughes said it would have gotten through for a hit had he not stopped the ball. Chavez had a good feeling when he made contact.
"I didn't see it hit him but I knew I hit it decent enough," Chavez said. "He didn't find it and that was good. You don't go up there in a close game thinking you need to break up the no-hitter. Everybody knows one swing of the bat and you're right back in the game. Maybe if it's 5-0, 6-0, yeah, it's 'somebody get a hit!' "
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TWINS 6, INDIANS 0
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DODGERS 14, REDS 6
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ASTROS 5, MARLINS 4
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