Bronx, N.Y., July 18, 2008 — Well, the A’s traded away Joe Blanton, and the Yanks slapped around lefty Greg Smith, who was pressed into duty Friday night in the Bronx after Joe was shipped out. And what chance did the lefty thrower have really, relying on the 88-mph fastball and the change of pace floating in at around 80? The opposition battered him for three hits in the first, one more each in the second and third, then two more in both the fourth and the fifth.
The numbers make sense, particularly when you hear that the Yanks overwhelmed the A’s 7-1 in this one, but there is one problem. Replace the 80-mph change with a low-seventies curve ball, and the pitching line we’ve just described belongs to Mike Mussina, the winner in the Friday night game. The A’s did reach the veteran Moose for nine hits over six frames Friday night, and four out of six times they attacked with a leadoff hit too. But not only did Mike not walk a batter, the 3-1 counts he fell to against young center fielder Carlos Gonzalez in the second and the fourth innings are the only two times Mussina ran a three-ball count all night.
The visiting A’s got off to a great start, with leadoff hitter Mark Ellis bounding a double over the first base bag on the game’s second pitch. Kurt Suzuki’s ensuing ground single up the middle on a 2-0 pitch had A’s runners placed on the corners with no one out. That Ryan Sweeney’s following bouncer to first was converted into a 3-6 force with a run scoring was ordinary to anyone watching who has never seen starting Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi throw to second, but brand-new Yank Richie Sexson made the play perfectly, and the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. Giambi is having a comeback year, but his throws stray sometimes, and Sexson’s peg was a comforting sight.
Moose’s pitching out of further damage featured the first of his six strike outs, this one with A’s DH Jack Cust taking a third strike. One Oakland out later and two by the Yanks sent Sexson to the plate with runners on first and second, with the home team threatening to tie. Richie fouled off a nasty change at 2-2, then smacked an rbi single up the middle two pitches later. This key at bat serves as a subtext only, really, but Sexson had a quite productive night in his first game in Pinstripes, and once he gave Mussina that tying run, Mike knew what to do with it.
Gonzalez smacked a single leading off the top of the second after Moose fell behind 3-1, but the veteran righthander took over from there, striking out the side in three straight at bats, all of them when hitters took strike three. Mike would fan six through six innings, but the first four went down on pitches taken with the bat on their shoulders. Mussina developed a fine rapport with home plate ump Matt Winters’s strike zone early, and he exploited it to the max. The veteran righty survived six innings despite allowing all those hits because he was in control all along.
He pitched around a two-out single in the third, then closed out the fourth following a Bobby Crosby leadoff bingle and Donnie Murphy’s two-out, one-base hit by getting Ellis to swing and miss at an outside fastball. The top of the sixth was his lone one-two-three frame, thanks to a leaping Robbie Cano catch of a Jack Hannahan liner, but Cano had proved even more helpful in the fifth when he turned a 4-4-3 dp on Emil Brown when the A’s led off the inning with back-to-back base hits.
Cano was also key in putting Moose in position to win. The Yanks and their fans are looking eagerly to Robbie for a second-half bump like the ones he has supplied in the last three seasons, and he did not disappoint Friday night. Once Sexson had tied matters in the first with his single up the middle, Cano singled to right off lefty Smith, but Sweeney threw A-Rod out at the plate. Cano avoided this kind of trouble in the home third when he came up with A-Rod and Jorge Posada on base via a single and a walk, with two out. Robbie took a strike at 1-1, but drilled a fastball over the wall in right center on the next pitch for a 4-1 Yankee lead. Moose and the Yanks would never look back.
The home team added two in the fourth after two outs when Bobby Abreu doubled over Brown in left to deliver Derek Jeter, who had walked. A-Rod singled in Abreu, two innings before he would crown the Yankee scoring with a line home run to right off Dallas Braden in the sixth, for the eventual 7-1 Yankee win. Alex’s three hits led the numbers parade, but it was the Cano home run for three rbi’s on a 2-for-4 night who drove the offense this night.
The Yanks battered Smith for six of those runs, but he almost got through four innings while allowing eight hits, similar numbers to Mussina’s. Moose allowed seven hits through four and nine overall, but he walked no one, while Smith issued five free passes. Mussina comes by his expertise honestly. He knows and respects the history of this great game. Ninety-five years ago before this night, Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson allowed a walk after a record 68 straight innings without issuing a free pass. Moose’s outing would have made him beam, I’m sure.
Aside from the nine (!) hits, Mussina’s numbers were all superb. His strikes/balls ratio of 63/30 was textbook perfect. He threw 20 first-pitch strikes to 26 batters, and he struck out six while walking none. Mike usually treads a fine line between the schools of pitching, hitting bats with pitches batters can’t square up, but mesmerising them with other tosses hitters either take as the ball curves over the plate, or that batsman flail at and miss as they dive out of the zone. A’s bats came into contact with 28 pitches Friday night, the way strikes are most often recorded across all games. That the veteran Mussina fooled the A’s into also taking 28 pitches that Winters ruled to be strikes made it a pretty unique night, one the Yankee righthander dominated in his own way.
The Yanks and their fans welcomed Richie Sexson onto the team Friday night. He performed well on both sides of the ball. But they won the game because their wily veteran pitcher dominated the A’s offense.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!