Bronx, N.Y., September 18, 2007 — Confounding “experts” both pro- and anti-Yankee, Mike Mussina turned in his best performance of the 2007 season in a 12-0 drubbing of the visiting Baltimore Orioles Tuesday night. Almost from the first pitch the cagey veteran was in control in a game that initially had the look of a pitchers’ duel.
The game did not start out well for Moose, however, as he stumbled a bit out of the gate, walking Brian Roberts with no one out by missing with four straight following a first-pitch, curve-ball strike. But he pounded two fast balls against Tike Redman, then speared his one-hopper in front of the mound and made a perfect peg to short for a quick 1-6-3. Three pitches later, Nick Markakis went down swinging, and Moose was in the dugout after 11 pitches.
Baltimore righty Jon Leicester actually got off to a similar start. He struck out Johnny Damon swinging and got out of a first inning punctuated by a one-out Derek Jeter single by coaxing grounders to second and to third. The next six Yankees went down meekly, and Leicester was through three frames in no time while having thrown just 40 pitches. Mussina had the same line after three, one single and 40 pitches. Coming one day after the almost-four-hour marathon Yankee win Monday, this one was flying by. Mussina got a second and third strike out around a Ramon Hernandez single in the third, and he fanned Markakis yet again in the middle of a one-two-three fourth. The tightly played portion of this contest was about to end.
Having struggled with leg and hand injuries down the stretch, Yankee Captain Derek Jeter lost 20 points off his still respectable batting average in recent weeks, but he drilled a huge home run in Boston Sunday, and looks to be becoming a hot hitter once again at the most opportune of times. He stroked his second of three hits starting the home fourth, and raced around to third when Bobby Abreu laced a first-pitch double to left center. After an A-Rod strike out, Hideki Matsui’s hot smash down the right field line eluded first baseman Aubrey Huff, and the Yankee left fielder cruised into second with a two-run double.
Jorge Posada worked a nine-pitch walk, his first of three straight, and the crowd leapt to their collective feet when Robbie Cano lashed a 1-1 liner toward the foul pole in right. The ball hooked at the last minute, falling harmlessly foul, but Cano singled up the middle for a third run three pitches later. First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, in for a slightly banged-up Jason Giambi, had been retired on a one-foot roller to start the third. Now a first-pitch swing produced a slow roller that curved foul after 10 feet. But when Leicester followed with a bp fastball, Doug blasted it for a plus-380-foot home run to right. Melky Cabrera flied out and Damon went down on a popup, but the game had turned on the sudden onslaught, and the Yanks were up 6-0.
That represented overkill this night, because Mussina was throwing brilliantly, and he retired 12 of the next 14 on 58 pitches. The 3-2 cutter that had retired Melvin Mora taking in the third followed Moose’s only three-ball count after the first-inning walk, he allowed just three singles, and struck out six in seven tidy frames. Mike usually mixes his outs between flies and grounders, but his infielders retired 11 of 21 this night; only four Baltimore-stroked baseballs landed in outfield gloves. Mussina pounded 18 of 24 first-pitch strikes, and the 65/33 strikes/balls count was almost the identical 2/1 ratio pitching coaches crave.
Moose reached 92 on the gun with his heater, but got outs with it at 87 as well. He kept Baltimore batters off-stride with slow-slow curves, a darting cutter, and a killer change of pace as well. O’s catcher Ramon Hernandez reached him for two one-base hits, the first to left in the third, and then one to right three innings later. The only other blemish was Miguel Tejada’s swinging bunt down third in the seventh. Following on the heels of his fine stab and throw on a Markakis bouncer, a rejuvenated Moose gave a circus try at a wheel and hail mary pass to nab the O’s shortstop, but he fell to the grass with the throw bouncing harmlessly over the mound.
Meanwhile, the Yanks added a run on a Cabrera sac fly in the sixth. Any idea Joe Torre may have had of letting Mussina answer the bell for the top of the eighth was abandoned once the Yanks batted around for the second time after the seventh-inning stretch. Jeter ignited this rally as well, lifting a long double off reliever Rocky Cherry over Redman in dead center. Abreu walked and Rodriguez lifted a sky-scraping pop to first, but Matsui stroked his second hit, delivering his third rbi with an opposite-field liner over short. After walking Posada, Cherry gave way to righty Rob Bell, and Cano, Mientkiewicz, and Cabrera smacked singles on the next four pitches, good for the final four Yankee runs of the night.
Jose Veras and Ron Villone pitched an inning apiece as both squads replaced most of their starters, and when pinch-hitter Paul Bako lined to backup shortstop Alberto Gonzalez, the 12-0 Yankee shut out was complete in a brisk (for the Yankees) 3:01, 53 minutes quicker than Monday night’s tilt. Mientkiewicz, who made a nice grab once A-Rod robbed a Mora double bid down third and threw low in the fifth, won the rbi sweepstakes with four, three on the home run. Cano matched Jeter with three hits and two runs scored, and he knocked in two as well. Melky Cabrera, slumping of late, knocked in three on a sac fly and an opposite-field single.
Victimized for 19 runs over three starts before a good one in Toronto last week, Mike Mussina had become a scary afterthought in the Yankee rotation, but with this dominant start, his fortunes appear to have swung him back into the starting mix, for the two weeks that remain in the season and going forward as well. The 52,000-plus that packed the Stadium serenaded him with “Mo-o-o-o-se” calls much of the night.
The celebrated French physicist Jean Bernard Leon Foucault would have had his 188th birthday Tuesday. He used the Foucault Pendulum to demonstrate the effect of the earth’s rotation a century and a half ago. Mussina’s 2007 season, and that of the Yankees, has taken us all for a bit of a pendulum ride too. Reversing the words of an old Frank Sinatra tune, Mike was “shot down” a month ago, but he’s “riding high” as ever now.
The Yankees, too, are riding high. They have closed to within 2.5 games of the rival Red Sox, a standings position they have not matched in five months. Who is to say where the Bombers may stand when the season pendulum swings to a halt 12 days from now?
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!