Bronx, N.Y., October 5, 2004 — With the way the Yanks have come limping out of the box in the ALDS the last two years, Mike Mussina has to wonder how much an honor the opening game assignment actually is. Facing the Twins in the 2003 opener on September 30, Moose allowed two earned runs on seven hits over seven innings while striking out six. And this Tuesday night in the Bronx he essentially turned in an identical performance, with depressingly similar results.
Mussina left the 2003 game down 3-0 (an unearned run scored on a Soriano error), and the lone tally the Yanks managed off Guardado in the bottom of the ninth left them with the same losing margin as in the 2-0 score this time. And this time around, Mike struck out one more and walked two less.
His opposite number was the same last year too, as lefty Johan Santana got the ball. But although Santana blanked the Yanks a year ago too, it was only through four innings, as he left with an injury. This year, Santana’s reputation as being virtually unhittable was dented perhaps, but he emerged unscathed, and definitely more of a survivor this time, despite the nine hits he allowed.
Santana’s and Mussina’s numbers were virtually identical this time, and each pitcher was followed by two relievers for an inning apiece. Mussina threw 95 pitches through seven frames, with a 30/65, ball/strike ratio. Santana threw exactly 30 pitches off the plate too, with 63 strikes for a 93-pitch total. Moose benefitted from fourteen of the 27 called strikes from home plate ump Charlie Relaford, Santana 13. Mike got the Twins to swing and miss 14 times and notched seven whiffs in the process. Santana managed 11 swings and misses for five K’s. The Yanks struck 39 of Johan’s tosses, while the Twins hit 37 that came from Mussina’s right arm.
Even giving that Jacque Jones (just returned to the team after the death of his father) actually cleared a fence on Mussina, it’s clear that the pitching performances were virtually a push. But the Twins played the better game hands-down. They plated their first tally because light-hitting catcher Henry Blanco sacrificed Michael Cuddyer to second in front of Shannon Stewart’s third-inning single. In a similar situation, Miguel Cairo failed to move John Olerud in the Yankee fifth, and Derek Jeter’s double play grounder cleared the bases and ended the frame before A-Rod could follow with a hard line single into the right field gap starting the sixth.
And speaking of the double play, the fans buzzed and groaned about them all night. The Yanks hit (and/or ran) into five. Rodriguez ran into the third out at third base once Bernie Williams took strike three to end a nine-pitch at bat in the first. Jorge Posada was nailed at the plate by Torii Hunter on John Olerud’s sac fly try to medium center in the second. And Posada and Williams bounced into 6-4-3’s before and after the one Jeter struck to close the fifth. Much of the reason Santana posted a manageable seven-inning pitch count despite allowing nine hits were the eight outs he garnered on just four pitches. (Juan Rincon coaxed the Williams 6-4-3 in the eighth.)
It was a cool yet nice evening in the Bronx, and the Yankees added all the touches for which the Stadium has become famous. Deleon Sheffield (right fielder Gary’s spouse) provided a rousing if plodding Star Spangled Banner to start the festivities, and Yogi Berra threw the ceremonial first pitch to John Flaherty. (In last year’s opener, Yogi was on the receiving end of ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s toss.) A year ago, tenor Ronan Tynan gave his moving rendition of God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch. This year it was opera bass singer Morris Robinson, with a whole different take (and lyrics, by the way, with “valleys” replacing “prairie”).
The interns supplying auxiliary board graphics seem to come up with something new every week. When giving the end-of-season top performers an hour before the game, each name appeared with a logo of his team. And with the out-of-town scores almost totally unnecessary (with both other ALDS games finals before the first pitch), the space on the boards down the lines usually reserved for those running tallies gave pitch speeds this night, a first in the House That Ruth Built. From the too-quirky-not-to-share file, there’s this: The game featured two different Twins batters hitting a foul ball twice on one swing, with Stewart turning the trick before his rbi single in the third, and Corey Koskie repeating the feat in the ninth against Mariano Rivera.
With the Twins moving and scoring the one runner they needed to, the Yanks batted into five double plays, and had a runner thrown out at home and at third in a game in which they failed to score. With the game getting late, the Bombers looked to even things with the 2004 weapon of choice, the long ball. They seemingly scored on a Sierra blast to the left-field corner in the seventh, with the left field ump signaling fair and Ruben circling the bases. But the umps conferred and the call was overturned. Then after the Yanks failed to convert Miguel Cairo’s two-out double, Alex Rodriguez blasted Juan Rincon’s first pitch of the eighth inning deep to the wall into right center. But Torii Hunter tracked it down, made a leap, and hauled it in as he caromed off the wall. Had he missed, the ball may have cleared; at worst it would have bounced off the top of the wall.
So Mussina has allowed four earned runs over 14 innings in the opening games of the last two Yankee American League Division Series. After a stellar career in Baltimore and New York in which he has brought a Perfect Game into the ninth innings of games on two occasions, Mike stands at 5-6 in postseason play, and 3-5 in New York. He threw a 1-0 beaut at Barry Zito and the A’s in 2001 with the Bombers facing elimination in that ALDS. And he took the ball from Roger Clemens in last year’s seventh game of the ALCS, and held the Sox scoreless while the Yanks rallied.
Mike outwardly appears to be something of a lone moose, much as one hears about the lone wolf, traveling neither in the herd nor with the pack among the Yankee 25. With the support the Bombers have (not) been giving him in the post, is it any wonder?
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!