The Yankees will play the second game of their three-game series against the Athletics today at Yankee Stadium, as Phil Hughes gets the ball for his sixth start of the season.

Hughes is still looking for his first win of the season, but after two rough starts to open April, he has steadily improved and pitched well enough to win in his last three outings – all no-decisions against the D-backs, Rays and Blue Jays.

“I just think his stuff in each start has gotten a little bit better,” Joe Girardi said. “The location of his fastball, his offspeed to me has gotten better. He’s pitched well enough to win his last couple of games, (but) we haven’t scored a lot of runs.”

Here’s the Yankees’ lineup they’ll be sending out against old friend Bartolo Colon:

Brett Gardner CF, Robinson Cano 2B, Vernon Wells LF, Travis Hafner DH, Ichiro Suzuki RF, Chris Nelson 3B, Lyle Overbay 1B, Eduardo Nunez SS, Chris Stewart C, Phil Hughes RHP.

Full lineups and game information is available via MLB GameDay.

David Phelps gets the ball tonight for his first start of the season after making six relief appearances, and as the Yankees try to win two of three from the Houston Astros, Phelps will try to continue proving that he is capable of handling both a starting role as well as coming out of the bullpen.

“It’s a good opportunity,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We’ve loved what he’s done over the last couple of years that we’ve had him. Whether it’s been in the rotation or in the bullpen, we think he’s really learned a lot and progressed well. But it’s a good opportunity for him to get in the rotation.”

Girardi said that the Yankees can expect to squeeze about 90 pitches from Phelps tonight.

“I think it’s important that we get as much as we can out of him as far as innings because that always helps the bullpen,” Girardi said. “So it would be helpful.”

Lineups and game information is available via MLB GameDay.

Other than Vidal Nuno, who pitched three scoreless innings in his big league debut, there weren’t many people in the Yankees’ clubhouse who had anything good to say about Monday’s 9-1 loss to the Astros.

They’ll try for better results tonight as Hiroki Kuroda (3-1, 2.79) and Phil Humber (0-5, 7.99) link up in a 7:05 p.m. ET contest here at Yankee Stadium.

Injuries are, once again, the story of the day around the Yankees – Kevin Youkilis went on the disabled list with a back strain and GM Brian Cashman said it was “a mistake” to allow Youkilis to play on Saturday against the Blue Jays. With Youkilis out, the Yanks have recalled infielder Corban Joseph from Triple-A; he’ll be in line to make his big league debut, asked to back up at second base, third base and first base.

Joe Girardi’s pregame chat also included injury updates, with Curtis Granderson (still taking BP, could soon advance to Minor League games) and Mark Teixeira (still taking only dry swings, unlikely to return in May) among them. It was last week that Girardi was asked, following the hits to Ivan Nova and Francisco Cervelli, if he was ready to shake his fist at the baseball injury gods. In case you’re wondering, he still isn’t at that point.

“There’s not a whole lot I can do about it, in a sense,” Girardi said. “I can’t really worry about it. You have to go put a lineup up today and just concentrate on the game today. That’s what I try to do.”

Expanded lineups and game information for the Yankees & Astros are available via MLB GameDay. 

The Yankees have shown some resiliency of late, as they did last night in last night’s exciting comeback to topple David Price, Fernando Rodney and the Rays. They’ll try to parlay that into taking two of three in the series tonight at Tropicana Field, as Andy Pettitte heads to the hill for a New York team that is pleasing their manager.

“They’ve done a good job coming back in games during the course of this stretch,” Joe Girardi said. “After getting off to a little bit of a slow start they’ve bounced back very well, so I’m pleased with that.”

Ichiro Suzuki played a key role in the rally last night, singling and scoring the tying run in the eighth inning against Price and then lacing a two-run single to center field in the ninth. For his efforts, and also because the Yanks’ lineup doesn’t have Kevin Youkilis and Vernon Wells tonight, Ichiro has been bumped to the No. 2 spot in the lineup.

Girardi said that, as the Yankees prepare to face right-hander Alex Cobb, there can be a carryover effect from a rally like the one they had in the late innings last night.

“I think it gives you confidence when you’re behind in a game that your guys are going to figure it out if your pitcher can just hold them down, give us a chance to win a game,” Girardi said. “I think it builds character, and they’re good wins. They’re hard fought wins. It’s good for the spirit of a club.”

Pettitte is making his fourth start of the season, and outside of a brief setback with some back spasms, he has looked absolutely vintage. He’s 3-0 with a 2.01 ERA and is trying to win his first four starts of a season for the first time in his career.

“He’s such a competitor,” Girardi said. “It’s kind of like Derek [Jeter], in a sense. Nothing really ever surprises you because we’ve seen him do it for such a long time and he’s such a competitor. If you look at one thing he’s really done well, he’s really given us distance. Maybe you don’t quite expect the distance that we’ve gotten out of him in the games, but I did expect him to pitch well.”

Expanded lineups and game information is available via MLB GameDay. 

Yankees DH Ben Francisco is just 2-for-22 (.091) this year. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Kevin Youkilis is tethered to a table in the trainer’s room at Tropicana Field, his lower back keeping him from making a difference in the Yankees’ lineup. Mark Teixeira is on the bench but unable to make contact with baseballs as he tries to repair his right wrist. We’d imagine Derek Jeter is doing whatever world-famous professional athletes do on a Tuesday night in Charlotte, N.C.

All this means that the Yankees lineup they’ve got going for Phil Hughes against David Price tonight … leaves something to be desired. Joe Girardi believes they’ll find a way to get it done because it’s baseball and anything can happen on any given night, but it doesn’t look all that wonderful on paper. Girardi acknowledged tonight that he’d love to have Youkilis in the lineup, and while he’s at it, he wants the switch-hitting Teixeira and the right-handed Jeter back as well.

“You feel it a lot. You definitely feel it a lot because of what they’ve done against left-handers in their careers,” Girardi said. “A leadoff hitter and a middle-of-the-order hitter, you’ve got those two guys out, that’s something substantial.”

The good news for the Yankees is that Youkilis is expected to return on Thursday, when the Yankees come back to New York and open a series at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks haven’t done much against left-handed pitching this year – their .190 team batting average (42-for-221) is tied for the lowest in the American League and second only to the Pirates’ .169 mark – but Girardi is hopeful that it’s still just a small sample size.

“We haven’t seen that many lefties. I still think it’s a small sample,” Girardi said. “We’ve had some people out of the lineup too, which is a problem, but I think our guys are going to hit better against left-handers. Some of the right-handers, I think are going to hit better against the left-handers.”

Lineups and expanded game information are available via MLB GameDay.