On his third try, Mike Mussina was successful. He earned his 17th win of the season against a very tough and resilient Tampa Rays team, 7-2 last night at the Tropicana.
Mussina went 6 innings, allowed a tad bit high hits (10) but struck out 8. Damaso Marte came in and pitched .2 of a inning, striking out both hitters he faced. Joba Chamberlain made a return to the mound after a month off on the DL and was good — not excellent. Chamberlain admitted his control was down, and that figures after being out for a month. Dan Giese returned from the DL and pitched a perfect ninth inning.
Chalk up that as an effective performance on all pitchers.
For the second straight night, the offense performed as it should — getting 9 hits (4 for extra bases). After getting 17 hits and 13 runs against the Tigers on Monday, the Yankees lineup again grinded up the opposing pitchers. The Rays have been using the same five starters for pretty much the entire season (and in comparison, the Yankees have used 11 — 12 if you count Dan Giese’s start after a rain delay), so the Rays have the rotation advantage, but the Yankees, led by A-Rod (who else) were able to batter away.
A-Rod went 2 for 3 with a homer, tying Mike Schmidt on the all-time list. He also had three runs, one BB and one RBI. Every position player except Molina and Abreu collected hits.
Worth noting is a moon shot by Xavier Nady that hit the catwalk on the roof of the Tropicana. That was a monster hit, but I must mention before that, Nady had struck out twice on the night.
With their win, coupled with a Minnesota and Chicago loss is still seven games behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card standings and 11 behind the Rays in the division. You need to figure that the Red Sox will continue to win games and may lose a few here and there. The Yankees need to be mathematically perfect and win 99% of their games in order to have a chance, including a sweep at Fenway later this month, to make the playoffs. There’s a slim chance, but it’s still a possibility. Getting a win against the Rays is something to cheer about, but a sweep is even sweeter.
To get step number two in the sweep, the Yankees send Carl Pavano to the mound for his third start, facing Edwin Jackson of the Rays.
