Phil Hughes stood in front of his locker, the one formerly occupied by Andy Pettitte and tried to explain why he could not locate and find the elusive velocity after it made a re-appearance during the opening two innings.
Eventually the topic of the discussion with the media touched on the topic of going to the minors.
If that happened and before I advocate it happening or not happening, it's not my job to do so, but you'd have to think it might be possible if there were a few more clunkers like Hughes' first three starts of this season. And if that happened, Hughes would not be the first pitcher to return to the minors to fine tune some things.
He might be a rare breed getting sent down there after winning 18 games but there is a precedent. Just look at two pitchers currently occupying the top spots in Philadelphia's rotation - Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.
Halladay entered the majors late in 1998 and like Hughes pitched a no-hitter deep into his second career start on September 27, 1998 against the Tigers. A year later, Halladay won eight games with a 3.92 ERA but in 2000, he showed a 10.64 ERA in 19 appearances and the following year, he was sent to Single-A to refine his delivery.
When Halladay came back with a better arm angle, more deception and an explosive sinker, the pitcher we see today was born and that one has been pretty good by winning 158 times since that point.
Since it is three starts, it might be a bit early to consider a trip to the minors, but if this persists a month or two from now, it might seem to be an option for Hughes.
And like Halladay, Cliff Lee also experienced a similar occurance.
Starting with his 22-3 CY Young season of 2008 with the Indians, Lee has dominated baseball and especially the Yankees but before that could happen, he also struggled by going 4-9 through the end of July 2007. That sent him back to the minors for a month and he was not even on the playoff roster of the 2007 Indians that beat the Yankees and came within a game of the World Series.
So should it be done, perhaps, but not necesarily now and is there precedent, definitely and when you see the results Lee and Halladay have turned in since returning from brief time in the minors, it certainly should not be ruled out.
One thing though worth noting and seeing if he can follow up on is this: Hughes had 18 pitches at or above 90 miles per hour during the first two innings and you'd like to see if that can last longer the next time he starts whenever that is.
If he doesn't get skipped it would be Wednesday in Toronto, which is 364 days after his no-hit bid was broken up in the eighth inning by Eric Chavez in Oakland.
And for the most part, people calling up late night on WFAN don't seem inclined to do this to a 24-year-old pitcher, but if it did happen, it worked out well for the pitchers who tossed Philadelphia's consecutive games for the first time in 12 years.