Thursday’s off-day cleary didn’t faze the win-happy Yanks. Nor did last Saturday’s 131 pitches faze the suddenly vintage Mike Mussina. After featuring a fastball that finally reached the low 90s to shutout the A’s last weekend, Mussina switched to a reliance on a sharp knuckle curve last night to hold those same A’s to two runs on six hits and a walk over seven innings while striking out an encouraging nine men. Suddenly my claims of Moose’s demise seem alarmingly premature. Check out his last three starts combined:

23 IP, 15 H, 4 R, 1 HR, 5 BB, 14 K

In the process he’s dropped his season ERA from 4.97 to 3.46. Of course, I’ll feel better about Mussina once he turns in a solid performance against a team other than the punchless A’s or the last-place Devil Rays, but he certainly is a pleasure to watch right now.

While Moose was cruising the Yanks got out to a 2-0 lead on a first inning home run by Gary Sheffield, who has four homers through the first half of May after hitting just two in April. A 2-RBI triple by Tony Womack (who has a hit in 9 of the Yankees 11 games this month), and two sac flies by Hideki Matsui added four more runs.

In the ninth, Jason Giambi followed lead-off walks by Tino Martinez (who’s homer streak was stopped at five) and Jorge Posada with his first hit since April 28, a single to right which Bobby Kielty misplayed for two extra bases, allowing both baserunners to score. Robinson Cano followed with a double that plated Giambi to put the Yanks up 9-2. Cano was 3 for 4 on the night with a pair of doubles and is now 5 for 7 in his last two games with three doubles. After hitting seemingly ever pitch on the ground to second during his first six or seven games in the majors, Cano is suddenly driving the ball into the gaps with regularity.

Joe Torre went back to the well with Tom Gordon in the eighth despite holding a four-run lead against the worst offense in baseball, but given three more runs to work with in the ninth, finally took Mike Stanton out of mothballs. Understandably, Stanton was rusty, surrendering two runs before he was able to get the third out. Paul Quantrill finished the job. 9-4 Yanks.

Kevin Brown vs. Joe Blanton tonight at 9:05 EST as the Yanks try to make it seven in a row.

Mike Mussina pitched seven strong innings and the Yankee offense jumped on Rich Harden early as the Yankees cruised to a 9-4 victory last night in Oakland. Jason Giambi got the nod at DH, and went 1-4; Robinson Cano had three hits including two doubles. The Yanks have now won six straight. I’m between my nephew’s birthday part and my cousin’s wedding, so I don’t have time to get into anything in detail. One thing that I was thinking about last night though was all the premature talk earlier this season about Matsui being a strong candidate for MVP. I’ve heard a lot of people say that he’s been the Yankees’ best player since the start of the 2004 season. He’s been solid, no doubt, but nobody has been better in that time span that Gary Sheffield. (Man, was his dinger off a Harden heater in the first last night sweet.)

Brown goes tonight. What are the odds he can string together two good outings in a row?

The Yankees’ mini-hot streak will be put to the test tonight as they face Rich Harden in Oakland. The A’s have dropped five straight. Harden sure looked good to me last Sunday, but Ken Arneson assured me that it was one of Harden’s worst performances of the year. Yikes. Hopefully, the Bombers can win the weekend series, then take two-of-three in Seattle before they return to New York to face the Mets. (A week from now, we could be looking at Pedro v. Johnson: mmmm, juicy.)

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First up is the tough young, Mr. Harden. After throwing a lot of pitches in his shut out last Saturday, Mike Mussina is back on the hill for the Yanks. It will be interesting to see how he responds.

Just a quick personal note here. Cliff and I want to send our best wishes to Jay Jaffe and his beautiful (not to mention funny!) bride Andra, as they tie they knot in Milwaukee this weekend. Our thoughts are with you guys. Have a beer and a brat for us. Here’s wishing you a long, and happy life together.

Ten days have elapsed since Steve Karsay was designated for assignment. The Yankees have been unable to trade him, leaving them two options: assign him to the minor leagues, or release him. They have chosen the latter. The four-year $22.5 million contract Karsay signed with the Yankees on the sixtieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor calls for him to make $5 million this year, which the Yankees must now pay, along with the $1.5 million buyout on his option for 2006, without hope for getting anything in return.

When the tale of the Giambi-era Yankees is told, Karsay will likely be remembered as a bad signing, a case of the Yankees throwing an unnecessary amount of money at a fragile pitcher to solve a problem that could have been solved less expensively and paying the cost for their reckless behavior, yet another signpost on the fading dynasty’s road to ruin. Upon closer examination, however, Karsay is revealed as merely another victim of Joe Torre’s now notorious push-button method of bullpen management.

When Torre was hired as the Yankee skipper, The Daily News famously dubbed him “Clueless Joe,” and the one statistic most often associated with him was his 4,110 games in a major league uniform, as a player and manager, without a World Series appearance. In fact, in 32 seasons in the majors, Torre had only been to the playoffs once, as the new manager of the 1982 Atlanta Braves. To make matters worse, his was a history of late arrivals.

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In Bill Cosby’s famous “Go Carts” routine, he talked about the importance of having good theme music when racing. Ballplayers love theme music too, as they get to choose four-bar clips that are played when they come to bat in their home parks. Actually, I’m assuming they get to pick their songs. I’m pretty sure they Yankees do anyway. The selections usually are not that interesting: Derek Jeter goes for the latest club hits, Paul O’Neill used to love meat-and-potatoes classic rock cuts. Some guys actually have taste: Chuck Knoblauch appropriately used BDP’s “South Bronx” before his at bats, and David Justice nabbed another 1986 Hip Hop classic, “Eric B is President” by Eric B and Rakim. Other players have a sense of humor–Dave Dellucci goes for the “Godfather” theme down in Texas. (Funny music is so underrated at the ballpark. For instance, a couple of years ago, when Rickey Henderson was on the Mets, he was thrown out trying to steal second one day in Pittsburgh. As he jogged off the field, the organist played “Old Grey Mare.” Wise-ass organists rock.)

Last year, Hideki Matsui used “Get Back” and “Day Tripper” by the Beatles, which I thought was amusing simply because it sounded so out-of-place. But it fit Matsui’s personality well. This year, Matsui is using “The Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, which is outstandingly random. I’m really loving that. It got me to thinking, wouldn’t it be fun to be able to play DJ for your team? So I sat down and came up with a playlist for the Yankees. (Cliff is working on the bench and will have his picks up later today.) Some of the songs are really obvious, used because they have a good opening, others because the title works.

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Better late than never, here are some photographs from last Sunday’s game vs. Oakland. (Click on photo’s for a bigger version.)

Emily and Me

Road Island Red: Bobby Kielty

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The Yanks and M’s not only played like they had a plane to catch yesterday, but like they had all been out way too late the night before. In a comedy of errors at the Stadium, the Bombers outlasted and outblasted the hapless Mariners, 13-9 to win their fifth straight game. Neither starting pitcher had much and the score was 9-9 after four innings. Alex Rodriguez made two errors, which led to six Seattle runs; Carl Pavano allowed four dingers; for the second time this spring, Jorge Posada Cadillac’d what he thought was a home run into a single; Richie Sexton and Brett Boone kicked the ball around all day, and Shigetoshi Hasegawa perfected Jackie Chan’s Drunken Style during a seventh inning rundown. (Even better was when my better half told me about the play and called Hasegawa “Hitchagoowoo Miniyawa.”)

Tino Martinez homered for the fifth game in a row, one of eight balls that left the yard (four by Seattle, four by New York). According to Michael Kay, Bernie Williams and the Yankees are now calling Martinez, C.C. As in Curtain Call. Tony Womack swiped four bases, and the Yankees’ bullpen was excellent over the last five innings of the game. While it may not have been pretty, the Yanks have to be pleased with the result. They head for the west coast feeling a bunch better than they did when they started this home stand, that’s for sure.

With their victory last night, the Yankees ran their record to .500 on the month and .500 at home for the year. Despite having already won the series with Seattle (just their fourth of the year and their first following another series win), they’ll need a victory this afternoon against 42-year-old Jamie Moyer to avoid dropping those records back below .500 before leaving town for a six-game trip to the west coast.

The good news is that the Yankees have four men in their line-up with spectacular past success against Moyer, including the blazing hot Tino Martinez (.346/.404/.654 in 52 at-bats), who will look to extend his four-game homer streak. Another of the fab four is Bernie Williams, who will get his second straight start at DH this afternoon. If memory serves me right, Bernie’s numbers against Moyer are a bit deceptive. He has hit .386/.458/.771 (.399 GPA) against him in 83 career at-bats, but I recall that just a few years ago he had a .500 career average against the Seattle hurler, meaning he’s actually struggled against him since. The other two Moyer-killers are Alex Rodriguez (.380/.426/.740 in 50 ABs) and Gary Sheffield, who has hit an unreal .550/.654/1.200 (.594) in 20 career at-bats, most of which likely came during 2004 and interleague play in prior years.

One Yankee with less impressive numbers against Moyer is Hideki Matsui (.250/.333/.438). Matsui’s slump continued last night with an 0 for 5 (though he would have had an RBI double in the third inning if not for Ichiro Suzuki’s ridiculous range in right). He’s hitting .189/.279/.270 (.193) through the first ten games of May, is homerless since the fourth game of the season back on April 8, and his season line has sagged to a pathetic .233/.315/.372 (.235).

One wonders if, with the series in his pocket going into a day game after a night game, Joe Torre might consider sitting Matsui this afternoon. Matsui, of course, has a consecutive games streak that extends back through his career in Japan to August 21, 1993, so he’d most likely appear as a defensive replacement at the end of the game, but with an off-day tomorrow, it would be nice to give Slumpzilla a couple days in which he’s not confronted with his struggles at the plate.

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Chien Ming Wang won his first Major League game last night, pushing the Yankees’ winning streak to four, as the Bombers beat Seattle, 7-4. It was not an especially riveting game–other than some nifty running catches by all three Seattle outfielders–but for Yankee fans it was more than satisfying. When pitching out of the stretch, Wang holds his hands above his head and almost comes to a complete stop. It’s like he momentarily forgets what he’s supposed to do next. I don’t know that I can recall seeing another pitcher with a wind-up that starts so slowly. Julio Mateo, who replaced Aaron Sele in the third inning, had a quicker delivery, but the man took forever between pitches. The deliberate styles of the pitching gave the game a lathargic pace. But after the Yanks jumped out to a 7-2 lead, Wang was impressive, working through the middle innings easily. He was excellent from the fourth through seventh innings.

Wang left the game to a nice hand with one out in the eighth. Tom Gordon replaced him, walked a batter and then allowed a two-run double to Brett Boone. The ball missed being a home run by about three feet. This meant that Mariano Rivera would be called on in the ninth. He struck the first man out, and then lost an 11-pitch battle and gave up a single. But Rivera got Ichiro to pop out to left (Suzuki helped Mo out, swinging at a 2-0 pitch that was up in the strike zone.), and Randy Winn to ground out. And that, was that. Tino Martinez homered for the fourth consecutive game, while John Flaherty and Robinson Cano hit the ball hard all evening, powering the Bombers’ offense. It was nice to see Cano drive the ball and have something to show for it. The Yankees have gotten healthy playing against the A’s and the M’s. They’ve won two series in a row, and improved their record to 15-19.

Slip Up

We can forget about Felix Rodriguez: trade bait. Rodriguez tore cartilage in his left knee getting out of the shower or the hot tub, according to reports. It’s not certain if he’ll need surgery. He could be out for up to six weeks. Infielder Russ Johnson will replace him on the Yankees’ roster.

I wonder if fans were more sympathetic toward aging players before the free agency era. I seriously doubt it. I’m sure fans have always given struggling players a hard time. These days, it’s common to hear a player’s salary come up when he’s slumping horribly. “You make $15 million, throw a strike, get a hit, for crying out loud.” If a player isn’t producing, it must be because he’s a fat cat, too rich and complacent for his own good. Fans have a right to their opinion of course, but often I feel as if this attitude discounts just how difficult it is to play baseball, particularly for players who are over 35 years old. I get as frustrated as the next guy at Kevin Brown, but I feel that it’s easy for me to forget how tough it must be for a guy his age to continue to compete at an elite level. Physically, and mentally, playing baseball into your late thirties must be an incredible challenge. In an article that appeared yesterday in The Baltimore Sun, Laura Vecsey profiled Rafael Palmeiro:

Palmeiro’s eyes dart here and there. He talks with a mix of passion, longing, anxiety.

…But his head is down. His frustration is evident. His disappointment over disappointing his teammates and fans is obvious.

Anxiety is the word that stuck with me. In the third inning of last night’s game with the Yanks trailing 2-0, Bernie Williams came to the plate with men on second and third and nobody out. He popped out to shallow right field, failing to drive in a run. The camera followed Williams as he returned to the dugout. His mouth was tensed, and he clasped his hands together as if he were praying. But the gesture didn’t look like a prayer, it looked as if it was everything he could do to prevent himself from losing his temper. It was just a moment, but it spoke to the kind of anxiety he must be experiencing internally. Moments later, he was sitting next to Don Mattingly, a placid look on his face, talking about the at bat.

Hideki Matsui, mired in the worst slump of his Major League career, must be able to relate. But Matsui still has several good years left in him. For Palmeiro, who homered last night, and Williams, time is running out. The pressure is also on Jason Giambi, who was evidentally approached by Joe Torre and Brian Cashman yesterday about possibly heading to the minor leagues to help his lagging confidence. Giambi insisted that working with Mattingly would be better for him at this time than a trip to Columbus.

Torre told the Daily News:

“I’m a firm believer of the mind ruling the body, and it’s not good right now,” Torre said. “I saw a calmness (before), but calmness in spring training is one thing. When you’re 0-for-4 during the season, it takes on a different face. He was more patient in spring training. Physically, he had a little more life in his body, and I blame the psychological stuff.”

Giambi was treated well by Yankee fans early this spring. But any sense of goodwill has run out, and the reaction to Giambi is getting downright nasty. No matter what happens, it doesn’t feel like Giambi’s career in New York is going to have a happy ending.

Chien-Ming Wang makes his third major league start tonight. Despite it resulting in a loss, his second outing, last week in Tampa, was not a total disaster. In fact, considering the fact that he is a groundball pitcher who was working on the slick turf of the Trop, and that one had to expect some regression after his excellent first start, he did just fine for someone making their second-ever start in the majors. Here’s hoping he will build on that performance tonight, particularly on the three strikeouts (two swinging). Wang struck out 7.16 men per nine innings in his minor league career, with his strikeout frequency increasing at each level as he moved from rookie ball to triple-A over the past two seasons.

His opponent is Aaron Sele, who had a nice run as a solid league-average or better innings eater for some successfull Texas and Seattle clubs from 1998 to 2001 (his age 28 to 31 seasons), but has been comfortably below league average ever since.

Yanks go for four-in-a-row tonight. As Alex always says . . .

Sele vs. Wang should mean that there will be some runs scored in the Bronx tonight. (Sele is one of those pitchers I always expect the Bombers to do well against; objects tend to get thrown when he shuts them down.) It should get chilly once the sun goes down, but this has one of those spring days in New York that you just want to mint. It is crisp and clean, no humidity to speak of, with a refreshing breeze, that just makes me happy to be alive. With a little less wind, this would be the ideal day to take a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. But who am I kidding? Like you need an excuse to walk over that great bridge.

Let’s Go Yanks!

Our labelmate Mike Carminati is undertaking a cool data-gathering project. He wants to assemble all of the free agent contract information from 1976-1984. Mike still has a ways to go, but he’s already compiled a boatload of great information. If anyone can help him fill in the blanks, head on over to his site and drop him a line. Meanwhile, here is a list of the Yankee free agent signings (for players who amassed ten Win Shares the year before inking a new deal):

Rudy May? Rawly Eastwick? Ah, dem wuz duh daze. Thanks, Mike.

The Yankees did it again, defeating the Mariners 4-3 behind eight strong innings from Randy Johnson, some clutch hitting by their worst hitters, and yet another Tino Martinez homer to push their current winning streak to three games, their longest of the season.

With last night’s win, the Yankees move past the Mariners and within 1/2 game of the A’s as they slowly claw their way back to respectability in the American League. You can thank the starting pitching for that. Here are the lines of the Yankee starters in their last four games:

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Seattle Mariners

2004 Record: 63-99 (.389)
2004 Pythagorean Record: 69-93 (.426)

Manager: Mike Hargrove
General Manager: Bill Bavasi

Ballpark (2004 park factors): Safeco Field (92/93)

Who’s replacing whom?

Adrian Beltre replaces Edgar Martinez
Richie Sexson replaces John Olerud and Justin Leon
Jeremy Reed replaces Rich Aurilia and Jose Lopez
Wilson Valdez replaces Jolbert Cabrera
Miguel Olivo takes the starting job from Dan Wilson
Bobby Madritsch inherits Freddy Garcia’s starts
Aaron Sele takes over Ron Villone’s starts
Jeff Nelson inherits Mike Myers’ playing time

Current Roster:

1B – Richie Sexson
2B – Bret Boone
SS – Wilson Valdez
3B – Adrian Beltre
C – Miguel Olivo
RF – Ichiro Suzuki
CF – Jeremy Reed
LF – Randy Winn
DH – Raul Ibanez

Bench:

L – Dave Hansen (1B/3B)
R – Willie Bloomquist (UT)
L – Greg Dobbs (3B)
R – Wiki Gonzalez (C)

Rotation:

L – Jamie Moyer
R – Joel Pineiro
R – Ryan Franklin
R – Gil Meche
R – Aaron Sele

Bullpen:

L – Eddie Guardado
R – J.J. Putz
L – Ron Villone
R – Shigetoshi Hasegawa
R – Julio Mateo
L – Matt Thornton
R – Jeff Nelson

60-day DL:

R – Dan Wilson (C)
R – Bucky Jacobsen (1B)
R – Pokey Reese (IF)
R – Rafael Soriano
R – Scott Atchison
L – Travis Blackley

15-day DL:

S – Scott Spezio (1B/3B)
L – Bobby Madritsch

Typical Line-up

L – Ichiro Suzuki (RF)
S – Randy Winn (LF)
R – Adrian Bletre (3B)
R – Richie Sexson (1B)
R – Bret Boone (2B)
L – Raul Ibaniez (DH)
L – Jeremy Reed (CF)
R – Miguel Olivo (C)
R – Wilson Valdez (SS)

Did the Yankees record consecutive shutouts this weekend because of their excellent pitching or the pathetic Oakland offense? Hard to say. Brown and Mussina both had one previous start this season that would indicate that this weekend was not a complete fluke, but surely the A’s ineptitude had something to do with it. How much, however, the Yankees are unlikely to figure out for a while, as they face the A’s again in Oakland this upcoming weekend sandwiched in between home and away series with the even more pathetic Seattle Mariners, who are a game behind the A’s in last place in the West and just 1/2 game better than the Yankees thus far.

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You have to admire Rickey Henderson’s passion for the game. He’ll be back in uniform again this year in the new class-A Golden Baseball League as the left fielder of the San Diego Surf Dawgs. Terry Kennedy will be his manager.

Last summer, I caught Rickey in a Newark Bears game. He lead off the game with a walk, stole second, moved to third on the first out and scored on the second. It was the closest I’ll ever come to watching Shoeless Joe tear up the South Carolina sandlots after being banned from the major leagues.

Fortunately, Cliff has done his usual fine job of recapping a game. Emily and I were also at the stadium, but our seats were so spectacular that is was actually hard to keep perspective on what was happening on the field. The seats my mom scored for us were just up the left field line from the visitor’s dugout, seats 11 and 12, in the front row! I mean, you’ve got to be kidding me, right? One step forward and we’re on the field. Third base coaches Ron Washington and Luis Sojo were close enough to touch, and Eric Chavez and Alex Rodriguez weren’t too far off either.

The seats were memorable, though they would not be my first choice if I could sit anywhere I’d like. Being so close, you lose perspective on the entire field a bit. More than that, you have to be alert on every pitch, in case a foul ball comes zipping your way. The first time Sheffield was up, he rocketed a foul ball over our heads and it scared the bejesus out of me. After that, I literally crouched down each time he came to bat. I didn’t bring my mitt, but we were lucky enough to have a guy sitting next to us who did. To be honest, I was more concerned about Emily than I was about myself. But you really had to be on guard. No keeping score, or drifting off here. We were in the firing line.

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I love taking my mom to the stadium. A huge (or actually, very tiny) Yankee fan, she gets a big kick out of attending games and cheers louder than I do once she’s there (which should surprise no one who knows her). About a month or so ago, I realized that there was a Yankee home game on Mother’s Day which was part of my season package, and Becky and I agreed that she would take her mom out separately so that I could take my mom to the game.

Then, some time last week, I realized that Kevin Brown would be the scheduled starter. Worse yet, he would be taking the mound against the A’s young ace, Rich Harden. As a result, despite my best intentions, I was not particularly looking forward to yesterday’s game.

Indeed, things got off to an ominous start. Brown worked a deceiving 1-2-3 inning in the first. Mark Kotsay lead off with a hard-hit fly out to left. Jason Kendall followed with a sharp grounder that would have been a typical Brown base hit through the middle had it not been for an excellent back-handed play by Robinson Cano, who just nabbed Jason Kendall at first with an off-balance jump throw of the kind Derek Jeter often makes in the hole at short. Brown then fell behind Eric Chavez 3-0 before recovering to a full count and getting Chavez to fly out to Womack in left.

Rich Harden had a much more convincing 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, ratcheting his fastball up to the upper 90s and finishing the inning by striking out Gary Sheffield swinging.

In the top of the second, Brown was up to his old tricks. Scott Hatteberg cracked Brown’s second pitch for a sharp single to center. Bobby Kielty then walked on four pitches. Brown’s next pitch, to Erubiel Durazo, was another ball. Durazo then singled on a 1-1 count to load the bases with no outs (Hatteberg had started back toward second, as Brown had checked him back before the pitch, and thus was unable to score). Brown’s first pitch to Keith Ginter was a ball about head high to the 5’10” second baseman.

Brown was back in his own personal hell, and the Yankee Stadium crowd was letting him know about it. Then Mel Stottlemyre came to the mound. Said Stottlemyre after the game:

“I told him the way to minimize damage was to stay down throughout the rest of the inning. He said, ‘I just threw a pitch down, and it was a base hit.’ I didn’t think the ball that Durazo hit was down [it was thigh-high, Brown is most effective at or below the knees -CJC], but I didn’t want to argue with him. I told him the only thing I could think of: ‘He’s a low-ball hitter; this next guy is a high-ball hitter.’ I was lying, [but] his stuff is so electric when it’s down. I wasn’t trying to feed him a line of bull; I just thought that was our best chance.”

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So Cliff is taking his mom to the ballpark today. Emily and I were lucky enough to be given two cherce corporate tickets–I’m not sure where they are, but they seem pretty fancy, as they come with V.I.P. parking pass, and two vouchers for the Stadium Club–by me mudda, who scored them through her office. She told me it’s her Mother’s Day gift to me. I told her to expect a dozen roses on my birthday.

Bronx Banter will be in the house, front and center to witness Kevin Brown’s latest outing. Pardon me if I’m not overcome with confidence, especially with young Mr. Harden going for the A’s. Still, stranger things have happened. And for now, it’s still nice that Mike Mussina tossed a complete-game shutout yesterday.

Rich Lederer, president of the Bert Blyleven Fan Club, sent me the following bit of Mussina information last night:

ACTIVE LEADERS IN CAREER SHUTOUTS

SHUTOUTS            SHO
1  Roger Clemens        46
2  Randy Johnson        37
3  Greg Maddux         35
4  Tom Glavine         23
5  Mike Mussina         22

The top three are first-ballot Hall of Famers. The fourth has a good shot at the HOF. And then there was Mike Mussina, the Bert Blyleven of modern-day pitchers.

Good call, Rich.

Hope everyone has a nice Sunday. Let’s Go Yan-Kees!