Bronx, N.Y., June 10, 2003 — You had to admire the numbers, and much more, the quality of the pitching, as Mike Mussina dispatched the Houston Astros through the first four innings Tuesday night. Notching the 12 outs while pitching to one man over the minimum, and throwing just 52 pitches, the 17 balls meant that he was throwing two strikes for every ball. He threw first-pitch strikes to eight of the first 11.

He has learned, as have all the Yankee starters of late, that it’s best not to focus too much attention on what his own offense was (not) accomplishing, but to “tend to his own garden,” so to speak, giving the team and the fans the best possible start he could whether the Yanks scored one or 100.

And it’s a good thing too, because the Yankee offense continued to struggle for hits, and far worse, to fritter every chance they had once they got them. So although Wade Miller retired the Yanks in order in the first to match Mike, from that point on, the Yanks were constantly threatening, but performing like a team totally unfamiliar with how to plate a run once you get some guys into scoring position.

Once Mussina had subdued the Astros 1-2-3 in the second on nine pitches (the only single-digit half-inning pitch count of the night, though Mariano Rivera got close in closing), the Yanks got the game’s first hit, and put a guy into scoring position when designated hitter Ruben Sierra singled to right after Matsui forced Ventura (who had walked) for the second out. But Raul Mondesi couldn’t convert and bounced meekly into a force at third.

The third inning was more of the same, and then some, as Giambi retired both Merced and Ausmus on the second and third 3-unassisted’s of the four he would record on the night. Adam Everett briefly broke Moose’s spell with a single just past Soriano’s game try, but Mussina coaxed a pop to second on his first pitch to Craig Biggio to end the top half. And then the frustration level grew.

Young left fielder Juan Rivera, who has been routinely bouncing into rally-killing double plays as his offense suffers during the opportunity Bernie Williams’s injury has given him, stroked a liner to center on the second Miller pitch in the third. Alhough Biggio in center gave it a game diving try, it glanced off his glove and we had ourselves a man on second with no out in a scoreless game. Or at least for one pitch we did anyway. Soriano bounced to short on the next pitch and you could almost see Rivera struggle and then overcome his baseball instincts and break for third. Kennedy’s throw to third baseman Ensberg had him by a cool five or six feet.

Man in scoring position lost because we did the wrong thing. But in two pitches, it got worse, and this time because we did the right thing. Even though Miller was struggling with his control, with two three-ball counts (one a walk) and three more two-ball ones in the first 10 batters, the ‘Stros pitched out right away to Jeter, and Alfonso did not go. We all knew he would go on the 1-0 pitch, and Ausmus made a fine throw, but from the Tier he looked to have reached second safely. But Jerry Layne saw it differently and punched him out, and our man on second with no one out had now progressed to nobody on, two out. The fact that Miller went on to walk Jeter just made the failure that much more frustrating.

Mussina added his fourth and fifth strike outs in dominating the two, three and four guys in the Houston lineup in the fourth. When Posada walked on five pitches and Matsui stroked his first of three hits, we had another scoring chance and only one out in that frame’s bottom half. But Sierra rolled into a force to third and Raul took a third strike, and we were in an accustomed place, scoreless through four despite six baserunners in three innings.

And the Astros were set on making us pay, too, as Berkman singled to right on a 3-2 pitch to start the fifth and Hidalgo also smashed a hit, this one off Jeter’s glove. But Moose coaxed a 4-6-3 out of Merced and a grounder to second by Ausmus, and their first threat was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared.

Rivera started the inning’s bottom half with a hard liner to short and then Soriano and Giambi showed him how it’s done on two of the most softly struck balls of the evening. Alfonso’s bouncer up the middle took too long to reach the middle infielders for them to do anything about it, and he reached second on Jeter’s grounder to second. Giambi took a strike (facing yet another team employing the big shift) and then swung hard but made just enough contact to float one into short center and the Yanks had a 1-0 lead. Just when we were getting the message that less is more, Posada erased that lesson from the blackboard and parked a 1-2 pitch over the 385 marker in right center and it was 3-0 Yanks.

The Astro have a dangerous lineup (but where were the lefties?) and two fine young starters in Miller and Oswalt (coming up Wednesday evening in the Bronx) and I was impressed with Miller’s grit, if not his command. He gave up two more runs, the first after a Matsui lead-off double (3 for 4 and the offensive star along with Jorge) in the sixth. He scored from third on a wierd one-out play. With the infield in once Sierra’s roller to first had moved Matsui to third, young third baseman Ensberg trapped Hideki off third on Mondesi’s one-bounce grounder, but he assumed his flailing attempt at a tag was a success without a call and rushed a throw to first for the presumed double play. Only Ed Montague had not called Matsui out, and our center fielder scored without a throw.

Inexplicably, Miller was sent out to start the eighth after having already thrown the same 108 pitches that Mussina tossed on the night, and four pitches later he was in the dugout where he belonged, but we had a baserunner we were able to cash in, thanks to a superb sac bunt by Ventura and Matsui’s third hit of the night. The young Houston righty has great stuff, and he can throw hard too, but he just doesn’t throw enough strikes. He managed only 13 first-pitch strikes to the 31 batters he faced, and his 45/67 ratio on pitches comes in at less than 60 percent strikes, a real flag of control trouble.

Mussina, on the other hand, finished with the same excellent balls/strikes ratio (36/72) he had after the first four masterful innings, even though he was far from unsolveable in the sixth. Mike started the 2003 season on an apparently unmaintainable role, dominating some very good hitting as he raced out to a 7-0 record. His last five starts have been less overpowering, and the struggling Yankee offense has not managed to carry him to victory in any of them (he has been 0-4).

Each game there has seemed to come a moment of crisis, a turning point when performances that have ranged from superb to passable have come up against an opposing threat, and in each case, Mike and the Yankees have come up short. But tonight Mike confronted his demons in the visiting sixth inning, and it didn’t matter if the threat was caused by a Yankee defensive slip, an unfortunate pitch by Mike, or just a batter taking a great pitch and putting a quality swing on it.

Robin Ventura was playing in protecting against the bunt when Everett led off with a hard smash that barely evaded him. It is the bane of the hot corner; you make a stab and hope to come up with the rock. He didn’t. As the crowd reflected how glad we were that Jorge’s bomb had put us up three and not just one, Craig Biggio followed. Mike retired him meekly three times tonight, but not in the sixth, as he drove the 1-0 pitch high and long and out of Juan Rivera’s reach, closing our lead to 3-2 just like that.

Ensberg followed and fouled strike three off meekly twice before rolling one past Ventura that Jeter could reach, but too late to make a throw. When Bagwell (also retired rather easily three of four times) doubled into the left-field corner on the 2-2 pitch, the Astros had the tying run at third, the go-ahead at second, noboby out, and we all knew that Mike’s moment for this night had arrived.

Prize-winning author Saul Bellow was born on June 10 (1914), and the title of one of his most famous books has become a self-help anthem of sorts: Seize the Day. Mussina elected to pitch to Kent, seizing the critical moment if not the day, and he got him looking on three pitches. The switch-hitting Berkman was walked intentionally, and the Yanks and Mike put their eggs in the Richard Hidalgo basket. And Hidalgo smacked the 1-0 pitch, but on a line right to Robin Ventura at third. Turning to third as he speared the liner, Robin saw no play there; he saw that Bagwell had only taken two steps off second. But when his glance travelled to first, he found Berkman impossibly off on his way to second, and the day and the moment were ours.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Hammond in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera’s dominating ninth. Osuna gave up our insurance run when he allowed Ensberg to homer on his first pitch as he came in for Moose to start the eighth. A hard liner to Jeter, and his day was over. Joe Torre put his trust in Hammond even against the righty Kent, and we were all rewarded. Eleven pitches later after a foul out and a swinging strike out, the bridge to Mo in the ninth had been successfully built.

Rivera has had a rough spot or two recently, succeeding more often than not, but stumbling just enough to alarm his spoiled-with-almost-perfection fans. And the lack of closing opportunities for the recently struggling team continues to play a part. Tonight initially followed the recent pattern, but only sort of. He started Hidalgo with ball one and ball two, and then the struggle was over. Eight pitches later, all strikes, it was game time. Hidalgo took strike one, fouled two off and walked away after the next cutter zipped across. Merced went down swinging in three. And lefty pinch hitter Greg Zaun did what most lefties do when facing Mariano. He broke his bat sending a crippled roller to Soriano. Vintage Mo.

I guess he seized the moment too.

BTW,TYW

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!