Phil Hughes Misses Out on $500K Bonus Due to Rain Delay

Phil Hughes was likely just robbed of $500,000 by a rainstorm that would not quit.

Hughes, whose Minnesota Twins' contract stipulates that he would receive a $500,000 bonus if he reached 210 innings pitched, had racked up 209 2/3 innings by the eighth inning of his 2-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, when the umps delayed the game due to rain.

At that point, the rain was falling so hard it mimicked a waterfall coming down off the front of Hughes' cap.

Sixty-six minutes later, when the delay was over, so too was Hughes' season. And with it went the extra half a mil he could have had in his pocket if he'd recorded just one more out.

If it were not for the rain, he absolutely would have pitched the ninth inning, according to Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, because he had only thrown 96 pitches to that point.

Instead, Jared Burton entered the game in relief.

Despite the bad luck, Hughes took it all in stride.

"I was very aware of it, but some things aren't meant to be," Hughes said, according to MLB.com via ESPN.

When asked if he would use Hughes out of the bullpen in one of the team's remaining games this week, Gardenhire shot down the idea.

ESPN suggested that the Twins may still award Hughes the money since the rain delay was out of his control, though there has been no official indication yet of that happening. But if even if he doesn't get it, he can rest easy knowing he did earn two separate $250K bonuses so far this year: one for reaching 180 innings pitched and the other for reaching 195.

And all was not lost for the Twins pitcher on Tuesday, as he set the single-season major league record for strike-out-to-walk ratio. With his 186 strikeouts and only 16 walks (11.63 ratio), he bested the previous record holder, Bret Saberhagen, who notched 143 strikeouts and 13 walks (11.00 ratio) for the New York Mets in 1994.