Mike Mussina is in search of his place in the rotation and looks to extend upon his recent success against Toronto where he was certainly effective, not allowing a run on five hits and three walks in 5.2 following his stretch of three starts about which he said, "are probably going to ruin my year." He faces Jon Leicester, who was promoted out of the bullpen to start against Boston September 8th. He worked five innings, allowing four runs and recorded the win. His next start was against the Halos, in which he didn’t allow a run in 5.2 innings. The Yankees have yet to face the righty, who played his first two seasons with the Cubs.
The Yankees are as close to Red Sox as they have been since getting swept at Fenway in April. Meanwhile, Detroit continues their struggle against the Tribe at the Jake. Lineups follow, comment away.
| Baltimore | ||
| B. Roberts | 2b | .292 |
| T. Redman | cf | .341 |
| N. Markakis | rf | .292 |
| M. Tejada | ss | .299 |
| K. Millar | dh | .256 |
| A. Huff | 1b | .285 |
| M. Mora | 3b | .271 |
| R. Hernandez | c | .242 |
| F. Bynum | lf | .267 |
| J. Leicester | rhp | 6.32 |
| NY Yankees | ||
| J. Damon | dh | .260 |
| D. Jeter | ss | .316 |
| B. Abreu | rf | .287 |
| A. Rodriguez | 3b | .312 |
| H. Matsui | lf | .288 |
| J. Posada | c | .338 |
| R. Cano | 2b | .299 |
| D. Mientkiewicz | 1b | .241 |
| M. Cabrera | cf | .282 |
| M. Mussina | rhp | 5.28 |
Pete sez that Mo, Joba, Vizcaino, and Farns are all likely to be unavailable tonight. Bad news comes in threes in that sentence.
good thing we shouldnt need them with moose pitching and all…
Looks like the Minkdog has permanently cracked the lineup after his performance in Beantown. Make of it what you will.
Mientkeiwicz, pushing his way back in. nicely done. Though I alwys like to see Giambi’s bat in there.
And AG, if you are right, and I assume you are, that news, combined with HIT-or-MISS Mussina on the mound, conjures up images of Urkel (Ramirez) and Trek (Bruney) in, say, the 6th inning and beyond. Ugh. Urkel and Vizcaino seem to be the latest candidates for the Joe Torre “kill ’em while you got ’em” school of bullpen management.
> if you are right
Only quoting LoHud there. I have no idea for sure, but hearing that Farns isn’t available doesn’t make me as nervous as hearing that he is, for some reason.
“Though I alwys like to see Giambi’s bat in there.”
He’s had a really bizarre second half. Hitting .208 with a pathetic .322 OBP, but still sports a respectable .829 OPS thanks to a .507 SLG. I don’t have any idea how productive that makes him…usually OPS is a nice enough indicator, but the first 2/3 of his .208/.322/.506 line are just so awful…
Moose flashes his gold glove.
Josh: Yeah on Giambi. This goes to the stats or note discussion we just ahd vis-a-vis Varitek. Unless Giambi is in one of his hug funks, which he is not right now, I always feel pretty good when he comes to the plate, especially vs. righties. he has an exceptional eye and when he does make contact, it usually goes pretty far. But yeah, certainly an off year with the injury-comeback.
Mussina works a fast 1-2-3 in the first. OK……….so far……
1st inning showed both Mooses (Meese? Meeses?)
Walk leadoff man, turn a double play, strikeout Markakis.
2nd inning, 3 up 3 down.
Oops. Am listening on radio – we’re already in the bottom of 2nd. Thanks J-YF
Josh: bizarre is totally what I think about it. I wonder if it is the fact that he may really need to be in the lineup frequently to keep his timing. He is hitting .155 and slugging .254 against power pitchers this year, 100/130 points below his career averages. His numbers against finesse/pf pitchers are on par with his career marks. Dunno.
Correcting a misttype: 100/230 points
If any of you are at the game, can you do me a favor. The next time John Sterling screeches “Mussina is PAINTING!”, I will post here and perhaps you can lean over and throw a fastball into his booth.
(And if you hit Waldman by mistake, it’s all good.)
Here’s hoping for poor outings by pitchers named “Jon”, more or Lesster.
re: “PAINTING”
I don’t know. Sterling’s Sterlingisms have grown on me:
Jeterian swings, Abreu–sweet as candy, thrilla from godzilla, melkman delivers, nice job-a by joba.
At least they’re more imaginative than the YES men.
Running aggressively. Thank you!!!!!!!!!
Knock them in A-Rod.
Hmmmm. Mini-slump-rod.
Matsui drives in both runs with a double. With the HR and now this, as well as some hard hit outs, I think matsui is crawling out of his hole…passing Melky going the other way.
GO*&^MN Sterling called it GONE and then said, “Oh…no….foul”. So so so so so so so so so sick of his false HR calls. I don’t listen to any other contemporary radio color commentators. Is there ANYONE who makes as many false HR calls as Sterling?????
“A Ribbie for Robby”. That’s a new one. Yeah.
Barring decapitation, Mientkiewicz just guaranteed himself a spot on the postseason roster.
Whoa, Mussina threw inside. No wonder he’s dominating.
Also his curve is amazing.
This is pretty nice. Get home. Flick on the tube. Watch Minky put one out. 6-0. And here’s Moose, pitching a shutout. Waddaya know.
If Mussina continues this, and we can count two of his best outings of the year in a row here, I’ll feel a little better about him in the postseason, though seeing him vs. powerful lineups still scares me a bit.
Moose in the 60s with that offspeed. Awesome. I throw that hard!
Minky…postseason bound…
Freaking Burnett gives up the lead – 2-1 Sox right now. Would be nice if he pitched lights out the way he did last week.
Burnett did throw 120 pitches against the Yankees in his last start. We might see the same thing (meaning a little fatigue) from Dustin McGowan when he faces the Yanks.
Moose goes 6 scoreless with 80 pitches. I’d like to think this is the “real Moose”.
Detroit gets 1 in the top of the second and 3 in the top of the 3rd, but Cleveland matches them each time in the bottom of the inning. 4-4 in the 4th. I’d kind of like to watch that series – sounds tight.
Mets give up 7-2 lead in 5th…Nats up 8-7. I so love that. Can’t count the obnoxious Mets fans on my case all year – another couple losses with Philly and San Diego wins and their playoff chances (not just NL East chances) are in serious jeopardy.
Moose exceptional through 7. Jeter bombs a double to straight-away center to lead off the bottom of the 7th and he is 3-for-3, crushing the ball lately. Yanks rolling 7-0. They have looked great for weeks. This is fun. Only the Angels inspire some fear right now.
Extensive garbage time here. 12-0 and counting. Awesome.
Gagne imploding. Smiles.
Didn’t want to troll two times in a row over in the Sox thread.
If the Sox lose the division, that’s still a pretty big if, Gagne has to go down as one of the WORST midseason pickups…EVER. And then Theo deserves every bit of the blame. Every. Single. Bit. I LOVE it.
Fuck it. Gagne is already one of the worst midseason pickups ever. Division or not. This is so wonderful.
Andrw, even if they don’t lose the division, I don’t care what any SF says – they are shaken, and shaken in a big way after the past week. They were up by 7 how long ago? They were up 14.5 at one point this season? Gagne is an unmitigated disaster which I thought actually woldn’t matter, and still might not, because of the depth of their bullpen. But this tiring-Japanese-pitcher-syndrome in both the starting rotation and bullpen makes it more than interesting. Toronto up 4-2 in the 9th. BIG SMILES.
After the last week, I think the Red Sox would like to delete the 8th inning of all games, like some buildings don’t have a 13th floor…
Detroit losing.
Mets losing and on verge of historic collapse (any team ever lead the entire year until the final week of a season and then not make the playoffs??).
Boston losing and reeling.
An LAA defeat tonight and life would be complete (for a day).
2 outs in the 9th in Toronto.
Unfortunately, we have to face Burnett again this year. This guy is sick-good right now.
JLugo homer with 2 outs in the 9th! Wow! The Sox have life. Burnett pulled one out short of the CG.
Ellsbury Ks. Sox lose!!
Boston loses.
Two games is still a lot with the few games remaining, but these two teams are going in different directions right now. While Gagne (and Francona) will get all the blame, Manny’s absence is unbelievable large for that team. Their line-up just stinks without him.
I’m not sure they stink, but they sure aren’t at their best.
Hey! Moose paid off the ump! Paging Belicheck!
Detroit loses. I think they are all but officially out now. 5 games in the loss column is pretty insurmountable with 11 games to go the way NY is playing.
Looking at the loss column, the Yankees are 2 games closer to catching Boston than Detroit is to catching New York.
Nice DP there!
Detroit blows 2 games in 2 days, and the Yanks win both days? I’d say things looking very good for the Bomb squad right now.
YF: What a crazy year, huh? I mean the ups and downs have been ridiculous. The e…x…t…e…n…d…e…d slump(s) unbearable, and the juggling of pitchers chaotic. And now they are playing better than anyone with the possible exception of LA. (And Cleveland not to be overlooked – colling off what was a VERY hot Detroit team that had won 10 of 12 before this series).
The biggest change in the yanks’ direction is the rotation. I’m not worried about Pettitte and Wang’s last starts, and with Mussina possibly returning to form, Ian Kennedy impressive, Phranchise Phil getting less erratic and Clemens pitching well, the incredible potential this team has skirted all season could finally align.
And at the perfect time.
Agreed, 2 games is still a hurdle, but at least a loss doesn’t start me thinking, “shit, have we finally lost it?”
The Sox collapse rivals and surpasses 1974-the Yankees own the Sox and may not loss more than one game the rest of the season. As for the post season I see the Yanks an easy winner losing at most 2 games in the entire post season. Isn’t it amusing how, with one exception, the Sox choke year after year?
And Philly ties St. Louis as the Mets lose, stranding the tying run on 3rd and winning run on first.
The Mets are VERY close to panic-time – much more so than the Red Sox.
If Philly and San Diego win tonight, the Mets will be CLINGING to a playoff spot – 1.5 games in front of Philly for the NL East and TIED with San Diego for he WC should Philly take over the East. I love everything in baseball right now.
rsl: I think predicting the Yankees to lose only one more the rest of the way is a bit much as well as they are playing. We gotta face Burnett, who just killed both us and Boston, and Kazmir. Those two games alone will be tough. But yeah, we are in strong strong strong shape.
I still don’t think we should get cocky yet, as.. well, Burnett and Kaz. It’ll be fun either way though.
I am not so confident about the division still – not much time left to make up 2 – but certainly feel that is more likely that we get the division than it is that we lose the WC to Detroit. And that’s nice place to be considering where this team came from this year.
I can’t believe Gibbons continues to push AJ Burnett’s oft-injured arm. What does he have to gain? The reason Burnett went on the DL this year was arm troubles, due to him throwing way too many pitches per start. So what happens? He throws 120 pitches in back to back starts. It would not surprise me to see Burnett collapse against the Yanks, and then go down with the inevitable arm injury.
Don’t get cocky Yankfans. 2004 taught me never, never to sit on my laurels as a fan again. Boston is still DANGEROUS, and the hot streak our boys have been on can cool at a blink of an eye. I feel more confident going into this post-season w/this Yank team than I have in the past 4 years. But let’s not let ourselves start swaggering around; I’ll wait to the last pitch of the season to do that.. if it’s called for. =)
You said it, bloodyank. All these others losses while the Yanks win is a rosy feeling, but it’s important that we not talk like the season’s over & we’ve won it, until the season ends & we win it.
Phillies scored in the top of the 10th…can they pack another away against the Mets?
Magic Number for Wild Card: 7
Just to reiterate, with Detroit losing the Sox can clinch a playoff spot as early as Friday (with a win tonight and a win Friday and a Detroit loss Friday), a full 9 days before the end of the regular season.
The last eight days will all be about the division, the AL’s best record, and the implications of being a wild card team. But the playoff hunt, as we know it, will be over, possibly by the time we go to bed on Friday.
Ya, I brought up how much of a “choke job” it would be if the Yanks caught up – mainly that it doesn’t matter at all if they both make the playoffs. This isn’t 1978.
Though I would love to have the Yanks with some kind of home court advantage, since that’s Wang for Game 1 and 5, and we all know he’s way better at home. One can hope!