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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, April 22, 2010

Yankees' Hughes stifles A's



Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Yankees pitcher Phil Hughes had a no-hitter until Oakland's Eric Chavez led off the eighth with a single.

BEN MARGOT | 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!' "

RED SOX 8, RANGERS 7

Kevin Youkilis hit an RBI double off the base of the left-center field wall with two outs in the bottom of the 12th inning as Boston posted its second straight last at-bat win, while sending Texas to its sixth straight loss.

ROYALS 4, BLUE JAYS 3

Jose Guillen hit a three-run homer for an early lead and Alex Gordon hit his first homer of the season with two outs in the top of the 10th inning to lead Kansas City over Toronto.

TWINS 6, INDIANS 0

Francisco Liriano (2-1) allowed six hits over eight innings and Michael Cuddyer had a homer, a triple and three RBIs to lead host Minnesota over Cleveland.

RAYS 12, WHITE SOX 0

Rookie Wade Davis (1-1) gave up two hits and struck out six in six innings, and Sean Rodriguez homered and drove in four runs, leading visiting Tampa over Chicago.

MARINERS 4, ORIOLES 1

Felix Hernandez (2-0) allowed nine singles and a run in his eighth career complete game, and Jack Wilson hit a three-run double as host Seattle swept a three-game series with Baltimore.

TIGERS 4, ANGELS 3

Miguel Cabrera gave Brian Fuentes a rude welcome back from the disabled list with a tying leadoff home run in the ninth inning and Ramon Santiago hit an RBI single four batters later, helping visiting Detroit beat Los Angeles.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

NATIONALS 6, ROCKIES 4

Wil Nieves drove in the go-ahead run with a double and Ivan Rodriguez added a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth as Washington rallied past Colorado.

PHILLIES 2, BRAVES 0

Roy Halladay (4-0) threw a five-hitter for his first NL shutout and center fielder Shane Victorino stole a likely homer from Troy Glaus with a leaping catch at the wall for visiting Philadelphia.

PADRES 5, GIANTS 2

Jon Garland (1-2) allowed a run and six hits in seven-plus innings and Nick Hundley hit a two-run homer to lead host San Diego over San Francisco for its sixth straight win.

BREWERS 8, PIRATES 0

Yovani Gallardo had 10 strikeouts in five shutout innings and Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and Jody Gerut hit home runs to lead visiting Milwaukee to its third straight victory.

DODGERS 14, REDS 6

Rafael Furcal drove in four runs with a single, double and triple as visiting Los Angeles, the majors' best-hitting team with a .302 average, rolled past Cincinnati, which has lost six of seven.

ASTROS 5, MARLINS 4

Geoff Blum's first career pinch-hit triple drove in two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 5-4 lead and Houston hung on to beat Florida for its fourth straight victory and fifth in its last six.

CUBS 9, METS 3

Carlos Silva (2-0) gave up a run and two hits over six crisp innings and Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run homer as visiting Chicago beat New York to snap a four-game losing streak.

CARDINALS 9, DIAMONDBACKS 4

Colby Rasmus homered twice, including a tiebreaking shot in the ninth inning, as visiting St. Louis beat Arizona to win its fifth series this season.

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