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NEW YORK - Phil Hughes is finally living up to expectations as the Yankees' No. 1 draft pick in 2004, but in a way neither he nor anyone in the organization expected.

Once heralded by Baseball America as "arguably the best pitching prospect in the Minors," Hughes' Major League career was short-circuited by a litany of injuries beginning when a left hamstring pull forced him from a no-hitter he took into the seventh inning in only his second big-league start. Through parts of three seasons, Hughes was 8-9 in 28 starts and many criticized the Yankees for refusing to part with him to acquire Johan Santana. In seven starts this season, Hughes was 3-2 with a 5.45 ERA, but was showing signs of why he's so coveted.

Once Chien-Ming Wang returned to the rotation, the Yankees had a decision to make. Do they keep Hughes at the big-league level or make him a victim of the numbers game and demote him back to Triple-A to get in starter's work? Hughes didn't deserve to return to the bus leagues, but there was only one role for him with the Yankees, the bullpen.

Many pitchers look at being moved from the rotation to the bullpen as a demotion. And while it's normally based on performance, in Hughes' case he was not only staying, Joe Girardi looked him in the eye and told him, we're counting on you. The Yankees bullpen was among the worst in the game through early June, and while he didn't know exactly what he was going to do, Hughes accepted the challenge. His manager needed him, so rather than sulk, he chose to embrace a new opportunity.

"I initially thought I was going to be the long guy," Hughes told YESNetwork.com. "It's kind of progressed from there." Oh yeah, it's worked. Hughes owns a 0.81 ERA in 16 appearances and hasn't allowed a run in his last 14 outings. For parts of the season there was panic running through Yankees Nation due to the team's weak bridge to Mariano Rivera. Brian Bruney couldn't stay healthy, and demands - sometimes pleads - for Joba Chamberlain to return to an eighth-inning role - were ignored.

As Rivera's primary set-up man, Hughes has taken the ball - literally - and is running with it. His current 20-inning scoreless stretch, dating back to June 10 at Boston, is the longest by a Yankees reliever since Rivera's 23 in 2005, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Still at the tender age of 23, Hughes has stabilized what was once considered the Yankees' biggest weakness and turned into one reason why they've taken over the top spot in the AL East.

For this season at least, he's not starting, not even with Wang out indefinitely.

"He's been very good," said Jorge Posada. "It's the reason why we're here. The role he's got, his confidence is building up. You can see it the way he's walking around the mound and when he comes out of the bullpen. It's good to see, it really is."

Aggressiveness has been the key to the Hughes revelation. The velocity on his fastball is up and he's refusing to allow walks. As a starter, Hughes' WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) stood at 1.52. In the bullpen, it's down to .769. What's helped is what also allowed Chamberlain to flourish as Rivera's lights-out set-up man in 2007, the ability to empty the tank using a blazing fastball.

"My stuff is pretty much the same," Hughes said. "I've had a couple of ticks more on my fastball because I've been letting it go, but I've been aggressive in throwing strikes. I don't want them getting on base for free. I want them to earn it. "As a starter you're going to see guys through the lineup two or three times and you know you can't always pitch them the same exact way. At the same time you can take that aggressive manner, that confidence you gained from the bullpen, and use that to your advantage as a starter."

The Yankees still visualize him as a starter, forming a backend rotation combination with Chamberlain behind CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. Because of the remarkable standards Chamberlain set as a reliever, the debate over where he's best suited hasn't gone away. Hughes has had to rebuild from the ground up, doubly challenging considering his hype as a first-round draft pick. Besides helping eliminate a weakness, Hughes has become an example for others who start to think they're destined for the never-was league.

"Probably more important, Phil Hughes might be able to tell people," Girardi said. "Sometimes it means more coming from a player who's been through it than necessarily from a manger telling you, 'Well, I had this guy ....' He is an example of how this game is not easy.

"You just don't come up and take it by storm. You're going to go through some struggles. He's probably going to struggle again, just like anyone else on our club has. It's part of the game and it's what you do in those struggles and how you get out of them."

Starter, reliever, or even as Rivera's successor, Hughes' goal isn't acute. It's a matter of staying where he is and penning his own story, rather than the ones written before he threw his first big-league pitch.

"My goal is to be a pitcher, to whatever extent that is," Hughes said. "I was brought up as a starter and that's what I know. I still think I can still be successful at it, but to say that it's something I'm going to be stubborn about - I have to be a starter - that's not the case. I want to be a big-league pitcher. I'm not going to be picky about it."