Hughes' Poor Start Leads To Another Yankee Loss

SAN DIEGO -- CC Sabathia gave the Yankees a clunker on Friday, Ivan Nova delivered a gem on Saturday, the Phil Hughes gave the Yanks another poor outing, failing to make at past the 5th inning for the eighth time this season in the Yanks 6-3 loss to the Padres.

"He just didn't make pitches when he had to," Girardi said. "He got into some counts where he couldn't put people away today. It comes down to quality pitches, it really does. If you miss by a little bit in this league, you usually get hit."

Hughes clearly didn't have his best stuff on the mound, giving up three runs in the second inning and a pair in the third on six hits, walking three and striking out just one as he couldn't make it past the third innings when an RBI single by Mark Kotsay knocked him out of the game.

"It's been really tough. It's been like a nightmare I can't wake up from," Hughes said. "It's like a battle every time, even if I have a good start. It's not easy. On a day like this, it's really disappointing."

The Yankees offense wasn't able to do much better against former Yankee Ian Kennedy, making his first start with the Padres since being acquired by the team on Wednesday.

Kennedy was only tacked for two runs on four hits over 5 2/3 innings, leaving the game after Curtis Granderson and Lyle Overbay each singled home a runs to help the Yankees try to come back.

"The adrenaline got the best of me later on, but early on I tried to control it," said Kennedy, who was acquired by the Padres from Arizona last week. "I started feeling it, trying to control it -- the first start against the team that drafted me. I was a lot into it."

Austin Romine made some history in the 7th inning, when he launched a homerun to deep center field, his first career major league homerun.

Though it wasn't enough, as the Yanks would go on to lose to the Padres, failing claim the rubber-match of the series. The Yanks haven't won a series since taking two of three games against the Baltimore Orioles July 5th-7th.

"It's frustrating," Girardi said. "We had a chance to win the series here and we didn't do it. But we've got to do it. If we want to play in October, we've got to do it."

Tomorrow could be the long awaited return of Alex Rodriguez to the lineup. Reports have indicated that Major League Baseball is expected to announced it's suspension on A-Rod, although he is expected to appeal, and reports are also making it likely that he'll be allowed to play against the White Sox on Monday.

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