Daily Archives: May 3, 2008

Mike Mussina held the Mariners to one run on seven hits over six innings, walking no one and striking out a season-high five men, including the M’s three, five, and six hitters, all flailing at changeups to cap his outing in the sixth inning. The performance earned him his third straight win as the Yankees put 15 men on base against Felix Hernandez and plated six of them. Johnny Damon had the big day, going 3-for-5 with two doubles and a two-run homer. Derek Jeter also went 3 for 5 with a double. Jose Molina drew his first walk of the year and snapped his 0-for-23 slump with a single in his next at-bat. The 6-1 score allowed Joe Girardi to stay away from his high-leverage relievers, passing the ball instead to LaTroy Hawkins, Edwar Ramirez, and Jose Veras, each of whom pitched a scoreless inning. Veras, in his first work since being called up, retired the side in order in the ninth on ten pitches, eight of them strikes, picking up a K to end the game.

Mussina’s line in his last three starts:

18 IP, 18 H, 5 R, 2 HR, 2 BB, 10 K, 3-0, 2.50 ERA, 1.11 WHIP

If the Yankees can give Carlos Silva his usual beating tomorrow (Silva has a career 7.59 ERA against the Yankees), they could enter Monday’s off-day having swept Seattle, which would push them back up over .500 and make their poor showing against Detroit seem a distant, hazy memory.

Someone stuck a microphone in front of Hank Steinbrenner again yesterday.

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I attended an outdoor event in what was supposed to be rainy weather only to wind up with sunburns when the sun came out and stayed out. A couple of days later, Becky came home from work and grumbled, “If one more person says to me ‘did you know you’ve got a sunburn’ I’m going to scream.” Strikes me that Hank’s comments amount to the equivalent. Hey, Yankees, did you know your season isn’t going that well? I wonder if Joe Girardi knows that. Hey, Joe! . . .

At least Hank was being timely. Amid his grousing was this bit of sabermetric brilliance:

“We just can’t win one out of five games, every time Wang pitches. It’s not going to work. It’s not a good win percentage.”

Indeed, the Yankees went out and snapped a three-game losing streak behind Chien-Ming Wang last night. But wait . . . why wasn’t it a four-game losing streak?

Because the Yankees have won Mike Mussina’s last two starts, as well. They’ll try to make that three straight behind Moose this afternoon, and will clinch their fourth series win of the season (out of 11 series) if they do.

Mussina only lasted five innings his last time out, but has allowed just four runs over his last 12 innings and has been sharp both times out, pitching like the kind of wily veteran junkballer we’d all hoped he’d become in his later years. Today will mark his first start against the M’s since 2005. Last year his only appearance against Seattle was his lone relief appearance amid his early-September exile from the rotation. He did not face the M’s at all in 2006.

Opposing Mussina will be King Felix Hernandez who, at age 22 and in his fourth major league season, is living up to his nickname in the early going with a 2.22 ERA while averaging 7 1/3 innings per start. In his last start, Hernandez struck out ten A’s in seven shutout innings, but came back out for the eighth and failed to retire any of the first four men he faced, all of whom would come around to score (three of them against the bullpen). Hernandez has thrown 110 or more pitches in each of his last four starts, and 115 or more in three of those four. Given his collapse at the end of his last start, one wonders if that’s too much for a 22-year-old arm this early in the season.

Hernandez faced the Yankees just once last year, coincidentally in the same game at Safeco park that included Mussina’s relief appearance. Hernandez held the Yanks to one run on five hits over seven innings in that outing, though the Bombers did draw four walks against him.

Today’s Yankee lineup is what is likely to be the default lineup while Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada are both on the shelf, though it’s the first time in the five games Rodriguez has missed that Joe Girardi has actually used it, in part because this is just the Yankees’ second game against a righty starter in that span.

L – Johnny Damon (LF)
R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Bobby Abreu (RF)
L – Hideki Matsui (DH)
L – Jason Giambi (1B)
S – Melky Cabrera (CF)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
R – Morgan Ensberg (3B)
R – Jose Molina (C)