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Hughes outduels Carmona as Yankees continue surge

Aug 11, 2007 - 3:27 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (TICKER) -- The New York Yankees are out to prove they can beat the better half of the American League.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 501st career home run, Bobby Abreu had two RBI and Phil Hughes provided a strong start as the Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians, 6-1, on Friday night.

New York entered the All-Star Break with a 43-43 record, 10 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox, but the Yankees took advantage of a favorable schedule after the break, playing 28 games against teams that had a sub .500 record at the break.

The Yankees went 20-8 and put themselves into the middle of the playoff picture, but Friday night marked the beginning of a new stretch for the Yankees, one in which 17 of their next 20 games are against teams in the middle of the playoff hunt.

"It was a big game for us," Hughes said. "Hopefully we can keep it going."

With the win the Yankees moved into a tie with Seattle, which lost to the Chicago White Sox, for the lead in the American League wild card race and now sit five games behind the Red Sox for fist place in the AL East. Boston lost, 6-5, to Baltimore, on Friday.

"We feel like we have to win everyday," said Don Mattingly, who was filling in as manager as Joe Torre sat out a one-game suspension.

Rodriguez got the Yankees started on the right foot, leading off the second with his major league-leading 37th homer.

Rodriguez, who returned to the lineup after missing one game with a bruised shin, blasted Fausto Carmona's 1-0 pitch over the center field wall to give New York a 1-0 lead.

"He's been a big part of our success," Mattingly said.

It was Rodriguez's only official at-bat in four plate appearances as he walked twice and was hit by a pitch.

The Yankees tacked on another run in the second on Jose Molina's RBI groundout. Hideki Matsui and Robinson Cano followed Rodriguez's home run with singles and Wilson Betemit moved them up with a sacrifice.

Abreu brought home another run in the third on a fielder's choice and Derek Jeter, who had three hits, extended the Yankees lead to 4-0 with an RBI single in the fifth.

"We played good," Abreu said. "We attacked. We did a lot of little things to help us win the game."

The run support was more than enough for Hughes, whose second start since returning from the disabled list went much better than his first. Hughes failed to make it out of the fifth in his last start against the Kansas City Royals, allowing six runs on seven hits.

"I made a couple of mechanical adjustments and I wanted to stay aggressive the whole game," Hughes said. "I slid over on the rubber a little more (towards the middle), to pitch on both sides of the plate."

The adjustments paid off as Hughes (2-1) looked like the starter who carried a no-hitter into the seventh before straining his left hamstring May 1 against the Texas Rangers. Hughes allowed only one run on four hits in six innings while fanning six.

"(Hughes) came out and changed speeds," Mattingly said. "He mixed speeds right away. He was using everything early and kept (Cleveland) off-balance."

Hughes' only mistake came in the fifth as he gave up a two-out home run to Josh Barfield as the Indians cut the Yankees lead to 4-1.

"Obviously, I think we could have done a little more," Indians first baseman Ryan Garko said. "You never want to say you tip your cap to someone. He did a good job, but we expect more out of ourselves."

New York added two more runs in the eighth on Abreu's RBI triple and a Matsui RBI groundout.

Cleveland's offense failed to give Carmona any run support for the fourth consecutive start. In Carmona's last four starts, Tribe hitters have scored only three runs. Carmona pitched well enough to keep his team in the game, allowing four runs despite giving up eight hits.

"He's nasty," Jeter said. "He's not fun to face. We were fortunate to get a few runs."

Carmona (13-7) benefited from the double-play ball as he induced three double-play grounders, two of them to end the inning, but it wasn't enough to prevent him from his third consecutive losing decision.

"Fausto did a great job of limiting the damage," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "He got some big double play balls. He pitched well, especially when we weren't doing anything offensively."

Entering tonight's game, the Indians have batted only .226 since July 23 and have scored two runs or less in 10 of their last 18 games, but still remain 1 1/2 games ahead of Detroit in the AL Central after the Tigers lost 16-10 on Friday to Oakland.

"I said the last couple of days that I saw signs of improvement, but today was probably a step back in that regard," Wedge said. "It's been awhile since we've been consistent offensively."

Things won't get any easier for Cleveland as slugger Travis Hafner is likely to miss the rest of the series against the Yankees with a strained hamstring and inflammation in his right knee.