MINNEAPOLIS -- If there's been one thing consistent about Phil Hughes' first three starts this year, it's that he's been inconsistent.
Saturday's outing against Cleveland was the latest up-and-down start for the Twins right-hander, who picked up his third loss as the Indians topped Minnesota by a 4-2 final. Hughes was charged with all four runs, including the fourth home run allowed this season.
The beginning of the 2015 season isn't much different than the way Hughes' 2014 began. Considering Hughes eventually turned in one of the better seasons of his career last year, he's far from panicking after Saturday's loss.
"It's a slow progression. It's not like all of a sudden a light bulb turns on and you're out there and you're in midseason form," Hughes said after the game. "You gain arm strength as things go along, gain a little bit of command as things go along. Hopefully it comes sooner than later. Until then, you try to make do with what you have."
Saturday's game was the deepest Hughes had pitched in his first three starts. He lasted 6 2/3 innings and nearly completed the seventh before he was lifted for reliever Caleb Thielbar, who threw a wild pitch that allowed Hughes' fourth and final run to score.
Hughes' first mistake Saturday came in the top of the third inning as Indians catcher Roberto Perez led off. Hughes left a fastball up and over the plate, and Perez turned on it and sent it an estimated 435 feet to the seats above the bullpens in left-center field. After allowing 16 home runs in 32 starts last year, Hughes has already surrendered four homers in three starts in 2015.
It was almost breaking news last year whenever Hughes walked a batter. He finished the season with the best strikeout-to-walk ratio in a season in major-league history, walking only 16 batters to go along with 186 strikeouts. His second walk of this season came Saturday when he put Michael Brantley on base with two outs in the third. The walk didn't end up costing Hughes, but it was yet another sign that the Twins' top starter still hasn't quite found his stride.
Through three games in 2015, Hughes is 0-3 with a 4.42 ERA. Through three games in 2014, Hughes was 0-1 with a 7.20 ERA. For whatever reason, it's taken him time to get going in his two seasons with Minnesota.
"It's something that I don't expect coming out of spring training, but it has been something that I've struggled with in the past, just trying to get that pitch execution up to, like, 85, 90 percent that you want right now," Hughes said. "I'm kind of in that 60-40 range where normally if I get to an 0-2 count I can really bury a batter back door and execute a good pitch. I'm kind of floundering out there a little bit with a pitch that doesn't execute and trying to go back to it and doubling up. Hitters have a little bit more of an advantage if they can see the same thing twice."
Hughes also dealt with a similar problem Saturday that he experienced last year: a broken fingernail. His curveball grip caused the nail to crack last year, forcing him to patch it up with some super glue. In the fifth inning Saturday, that same nail -- the middle finger on his right hand -- cracked again.
That prevented Hughes from throwing any more curveballs the rest of the way. Before that issue popped up, Hughes gave up his second run in the top of the fourth when Lonnie Chisenhall's sacrifice fly scored Brandon Moss, who led off the inning with a double.
Hughes cruised through the sixth inning but did give up two more runs in the seventh, including an RBI single by Jason Kipnis that made it a 3-1 Cleveland lead. He didn't use the fingernail as an excuse, instead saying he still felt strong in the seventh despite it. He nearly got out of the inning without further trouble, too, but was ultimately lifted by manager Paul Molitor.
"All his starts, he's kept us in the game," Molitor said. "His last inning of work, they started squaring some balls up and he was getting up there a little bit, so I got him out of there at that point."
Hughes didn't pick up his third loss of 2014 until June 17. By that point he already had seven victories. Though the results haven't been there yet for Hughes, he continues to trust in the process.
It worked for him last season. Why not in 2015?
"You never want to go through it, but it's something that I guess you learn more and more that you're not always going to be perfect," Hughes said of another slow start. "I just have to go out there and make better pitches and not try and go to things over and over again that aren't working and make things up on the fly and pitch a little bit more. . . . I just wish I could have made a couple pitches better there."
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