Bronx, N.Y., April 18, 2013 —The Yankees dropped the final game of their homestand, 6-2, to the Arizona Diamondbacks, seemingly because the visitors were more determined to not leave town without a victory than the Bombers were to deny them one. In a game with weird twists and turns on a few rallies that came up short, the teams were tied 2-2 after 11 on the results of just four pitches, resulting in two singleton homers apiece.

If silver linings talk bores you, you might want to skip down a paragraph, because the home team entered this game with three solid starters, an iffy fourth one, and then Phil Hughes, coming off what may have been his worst start in pinstripes last Saturday. He had command of none of his pitches, couldn’t find the zone, retired just nine of 20 batters, and gave up three home runs. But even though he did allow two home runs Thursday night, he was in control most of the way, threw to a 73/34 strikes/balls ratio, finished seven innings while allowing just two runs, and walked none while striking out six.

Unfortunately, he was paired with a starter who threw even better, or was it that the mesmerized Yankee offense, so torrid the last two weeks, hit a wall for the second consecutive night against a young Arizona southpaw? They had just two hits early in Wednesday’s come-from-behind victory, but this night the offense was a single and two walks until Robinson Cano halved a 2-0 lead with a sixth-inning home run against Patrick Corbin.

The D’backs did better against Hughes, who managed to rise to the occasion with men on second and third and one out in the fifth, after having surrendered a home run to Arizona shortstop Didi Gregorio on the very first pitch he saw in the major leagues in the third to give the visitors the lead. Phil surrendered a second homer to fall behind 2-0 before Cano’s blast, and was saved from a third straight loss to start the year when Francisco Cervelli tied the game at 2-2 with a one-out homer in the ninth off J.J. Putz.

This latter came after the Yanks’ best chance of the night, against David Hernandez in the eighth, when the righty reliever loaded the bases on two walks around a Brett Gardner single. It so could have been more, because the frame started with third baseman Martin Prado robbing Eduardo Nunez of a double down the line, then pegging him out, and because Robinson Cano appeared to have driven in a run when getting hit by a pitch, until Ron Kulpa ruled that he had swung on the pitch and struck out. Hernandez followed by striking out Kevin Youkilis, and the oppportunity passed.

In the 11th the Yanks would bunch two singles against Heath Bell for their only other threat, while the D’backs mounted big-time rallies in the ninth and 11th before finally exploding for four runs in the 12th. The manner in which the Yanks stopped the first and failed vs the third rally was bizarre, as each featured a Cervelli error when his catcher’s glove interfered with a swinging bat, for catcher’s interference. Brett Gardner reached a long drive to left center by Miguel Montero leading off the ninth but didn’t catch the ball, the same fate that befell Cano on a following Cody Ross single that eluded him up the middle to put runners on the corners. Joba Chamberlain got a strike out, and made a good play on a bouncer to the box that erased Montero and almost produced a second out at third, where the throw beat Ross, but Phil Cuzzi ruled the tag was missed. Cisco’s first CI then filled the bases but Chad Pennington flied out.

The 11th also featured another leadoff double, a walk, and A.J. Pollock, off to a great star with seven doubles in the early season for an Arizona record, oddly trying to sacrifice with two strikes. He got the bunt fair, but the out was made at third. This was the first of two frames thrown by David Phelps, who ironically pitched lights out when Hughes bombed on Saturday, but gave up one long drive after another this time. He survived Ross’s leadoff two-bagger in the 11th but not a similar Gerardo Parra drive in the 12th. A Prado fly to the wall in center moved the runner to third, Cisco committed his second catcher’s interference, and Phelps loaded the bases by hitting Montero with a pitch. Ross’s single plated one, and ex-Yank Eric Chavez delivered three more by doubling off the wall in front of the Yankee bullpen in right center.

The Yanks went quietly in the bottom half, and lost 6-2. When Vernon Wells’s short fly to center settled into Parra’s glove, it was 11:19.

Which was 4:11 after the night’s first pitch.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!