Pregame notes: Familiar questions

Surrounded by reports in the visiting clubhouse here in Phoenix, Phil Hughes was answering all of the questions you’d expect about his innings limit and his turn being skipped. When someone asked whether he knew exactly how many innings he would be allowed to pitch, Joba Chamberlain leaned over the crowd.

“High five,” he said, holding his left hand up to Hughes. “Someone else gets the question. Awesome!”

No, Hughes doesn’t know exactly how many innings he’s allowed to throw this season. He hasn’t asked. The only thing he asked when the Yankees told him his turn was being skipped this week was whether he’d have to miss another start before the all-star break. The Yankees assured him that, for now, it’s only this start that’s being skipped.

“I assume there are going to be some scenarios where something needs to happen in the second half,” Hughes said. “I can’t imagine one start prior to the all-star break being the breaking point of my innings limit. I didn’t ask about the second half because it’s so far off.”

Girardi said the Yankees are hoping to avoid last year’s Joba Chamberlain situation. The early season injury to Chien-Ming Wang kept the Yankees from being able to skip Chamberlain early last season, and they were forced to give him those strange three- and four-inning starts late in the year.

“Obviously you’d love to be able to say in spring training, here’s the plan, here’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Girardi said. “You’re going to average 6.1 innings per game and you’re going to get to your innings limitation on September 30. But the one thing I’m not going to do is I’m not going to jeopardize the game that he’s pitching in because of his innings limitation. If he’s dealing through six and it’s a 2-1 game, I’m not taking him out because of his innings limitation. We’ll worry about (later) and we’ll adjust.

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