Results tagged ‘ Mike Mussina ’
Who’ll Stop the Rain?
As this rain delay in Boston continues, one is left to wonder why Mussina was allowed to pitch to Manny in the sixth with two out, runners on second and third, and the Yanks clinging to a 2-1 lead. That decision is especially perplexing in light of the mammoth home run that Manny hit two innings earlier and his tremendous history against the Yankees.
With first base open, the smarter move would have been to intentionally walk Ramirez and let Mussina take his chances against Youkilis. Mussina had great control today, having not walked a batter all game. The possibility that he would walk in the tying run in a bases loaded situation was remote. Given the choice of facing Manny Ramirez or Kevin Youkilis with the game on the line, one would have to be crazy to pitch to Manny.
Girardi will be second guessed for this one, and rightfully so, unless A-Rod can come through against Papelbon when the game resumes.
Looking Ahead to Next Weekend in Boston…
…the Yankees are slated to start Wang,
Mussina, and Hughes, in that order, against the Red
Sox.
There Goes the Perfect Season…
Not too much to dissect about last night’s game. The Jays got strong starting pitching. The Yankees didn’t. Simple as that.
Mussina was, well, mediocre. He didn’t get pounded, as he did last August against Detroit and Anaheim, so much as he died a death of 1,000 paper cuts. With the exception of Vernon Wells’ home run, there weren’t that many hard hit balls. By the same token, he wasn’t keeping anyone off-balance with an 84-85 mph fastball and breaking pitches that lacked bite. The result was that the ball was constantly put in play and the Jays were able to pile up seeing-eye and bloop singles. Luckily, though, the defense turned three important double plays behind Moose or things could have been worse. Hopefully as the season progresses Mussina can regain the feel for his off-speed pitches and build up enough arm strength to get his fastball up in the 87-89 mph range. Otherwise, it’s hard to see how he wins the 13-15 games the Yankees will most likely need out of him if they are to make the playoffs.
On the other side, A.J. Burnett was as good as he usually is when facing the Yanks. Although he didn’t have his most electric stuff, his ball was moving just enough to prevent the Yankee hitters from making solid contact. That is, with the exception of his final pitch — a misplaced fastball Burnett served up to A-Rod in the seventh and which Alex promptly deposited over the centerfield fence, roughly 420 feet away. For Alex, it was career home run No. 519, meaning he’s just two shy from tying and three from passing Ted Williams (and Willie McCovey) for fifteenth place on the career home run list.
With the way A-Rod has been swinging the bat from the spring and on into the regular season, it’s not inconceivable that he could reach that milestone next weekend when the Yanks play Boston at Fenway. How sweet it would be for the most despised man in Beantown to displace a Boston icon like Ted Williams in front of all of Fenway’s odious Red Sox fans! All it will take to set the stage is two home runs in eight games against Toronto (1), Tampa Bay (4), and Kansas City (3).
Entering this series, this game looked the most likely to be a Yankee loss because of the favorable pitching matchup for the Blue Jays, so it’s par for the course. Now it falls to Phil Hughes later today to get the Yanks the 2-1 split.
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