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Hughes' injury halts no-hit bid in Yankees' win

May 2, 2007 - 5:41 AM ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- The New York Yankees have to be firm believers in Murphy's Law after what transpired on Tuesday night in Texas.

The Yankees won just their second game in their last 10 tries with a 10-1 victory over the Texas Rangers, but suffered another key loss to the pitching staff.

Philip Hughes (1-1), the Yankees' top prospect, was pitching masterfully and carried a no-hitter through 6 1/3 innings before he went down with a left hamstring injuring, thus becoming the latest New York pitcher to head to the sidelines.

"It's significant," New York manager Joe Torre said. "He felt a little pop and while he seems to be feeling pretty good, my guess is that we're thinking in terms of four-to-six weeks."

The Yankees already have Mike Mussina (hamstring), Carl Pavano (forearm) and Jeff Karstens (leg) on the disabled list. If Hughes joins them this will be a night more remembered for his injury than the near no-hitter and win.

"There is a bit of, 'Why me?' in all this especially with a youngster like Hughes when everything seems to going fine. It's just another freak thing," Torre said.

Hughes (1-0), who earned his first major league win, had yielded just three walks until he suffered the injury after an 0-2 pitch to Mark Teixeira. Torre and the team trainers rushed out to the mound after Hughes walked off to the side grabbing behind his left leg.

"It's definitely frustrating because it puts a bit of a damper on my first major league win," Hughes said. "I'm disappointed because, although the team needed a win and we got one, I'm not going to be out there in five days to help them again."

Hughes was well aware of what he was on the verge of accomplishing.

"I knew the whole game that I had a no-hitter working," said Hughes, who was helped by three double plays. "I knew that I hadn't given up a hit, but I was always just concentrating on the next hitter and never thinking about the last out in the ninth."

The 20-year-old phenom was relieved by Mike Myers, who got the final two outs of the inning. Myers allowed the first Texas hit to Hank Blalock to lead off the eighth, and he scored on a single by Ian Kinsler.

Rangers manager Ron Washington, who watched his team get no-hit just less than two weeks ago by Chicago White Sox lefthander Mark Buehrle, said he understood what was going on with his team tonight.

"I'm not baffled," Washington said. "You know the old saying, 'Good pitching stops hitting', well, the kid (Hughes) threw pretty good tonight, stopped our offense and kept us off-balance."

Luis Vizcaino pitched a perfect ninth to close out the game.

Robinson Cano went 4-for-5 with three RBI and two runs to pace a Yankees attack that pounded out 14 hits, including five doubles.

The Yankees scored two runs in the second and took control in the third when the first six batters reached base off Kameron Loe (1-2). Hideki Matsui had an RBI groundout to make the score 3-0 and Jorge Posada followed with an RBI double.

"Tonight is the best that we've swung the bats in a while," Torre said. "We seemed to have more energy tonight. Now whether it was energy from Hughes' outing or the guys just feeling good about themselves, things felt like they were really going good."

Cano followed with a two-run double to cap the four-run third and made the score 6-0. Posada went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI, and Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to a major-league leading 18 games with a single in the fourth.

Loe, who allowed seven runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings his last start, was hammered again. He gave up nine runs - seven earned - and 10 hits in four innings.