Diego against the Padres, where he struck out nine batters and allowed just one run in six innings of work. Hughes then went on another roll, winning his next three starts, the first time he earned the win in four consecutive starts since winning four straight from June 2–19, 2010. Following his win in San Diego, Hughes also emerged by throwing at least seven innings in each of his nine outings over the rest of the season. Compiling a 5-2 record over this period, he also posted a 2.45 ERA and a 0.879 WHIP in 66 innings, with 59 strikeouts against just two walks and holding batters to a .221 average. In five of these nine starts, Hughes allowed one earned run or less, and recorded quality starts (three earned runs or less) in all but one of them. On September 13, Hughes struck out a career-high 11 batters over seven plus innings in a 5-1 loss to the White Sox, becoming the first Twins pitcher to strike out 10 or more batters in a single game in over two years (the last time being Francisco Liriano on July 12, 2012, a 379 game span). In his final start of the season on September 24, Hughes pitched eight innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts in his final start of the season, a 2-1 over the Diamondbacks. He ultimately ended the season setting a new record for the best strikeout-to-walk ratio posted by a starting pitcher in a single season in MLB history (11.625), breaking the previous record of 11.000 set by Bret Saberhagen 20 years earlier. Hughes closed his first season in Minnesota with a superb second half, pitching 88 innings across 13 starts and posting a 2.97 ERA (despite an average record of 6-5). Hughes finished the 2014 season with a win–loss record of 16–10 alongside a career-best 3.52 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He topped the 200 inning threshold for the first time, pitching innings (10th-most in the AL) in 32 starts, which included 26 outings at least six innings thrown (20 of which were quality). He gave up 221 hits (fifth in the AL), while striking out a career-high 186 batters to go against a measly 16 walks, and posting a .268 opponent batting average. In addition to establishing an overall career-best season, Hughes was seen as a Cy Young candidate by some baseball writers in large