GREAT ESCAPE
Mike Mussina did his best to make two weak runs stand up. Ditto Jose Veras and Kyle Farnsworth.
So when the Yankees turned a two-run lead over to Mariano Rivera in the ninth today at Yankee Stadium, they truly believed they were three outs from a much-needed victory over the Red Sox.
Instead, Rivera made them sweat by giving up a single to J.D. Drew, hitting Manny Ramirez with a one-strike pitch, giving up an RBI single to Mike Lowell and hitting Kevin Youkilis to reload the bases with one out.
Rivera responded by striking out Coco Crisp, getting Jason Varitek on a pop-up and sealed the 2-1 win by whiffing Julio Lugo.
If Mussina isn’t part of the AL All-Star staff at Yankee Stadium a week from Tuesday, it’s not for a lack of brilliance. In March there were questions throughout the Yankees Universe – from the front office to the clubhouse – about Mussina’s ability to get big league hitters out thanks to a loss of velocity and him being close to four decades old.
Now, with the season past the halfway point, Mussina is easily the Yankees’ most productive starter and deserving of an All-Star spot. Yesterday at Yankee Stadium against the Red Sox, a team that hammered Mussina in back-to-back April starts, Mussina helped pitch the Yankees to victory in front of 54,990.
Mussina (11-6) was brilliant across six shutout innings in which he allowed four hits, walked one, hit two and fanned five.
Rivera’s rocky ninth resulted in his 23rd save in 23 attempts. The run was the first he allowed in a save situation.
The victory was the Yankees’ second in seven games and, at least for a day, allowed them to exhale.
Justin Masterson (4-3) was the loser. He gave up two runs, six hits and hit three in six innings. The Red Sox have lost six of eight.
A gamble by third base coach Bobby Meacham resulted in the Yankees’ first run in the second. With Jason Giambi on second and Robinson Cano on first and two outs, Melky Cabrera grounded a single to right. Knowing Jose Molina, the No. 9 batter was up next, Meacham sent the heavy-legged Giambi home and he beat Drew’s throw with an arm swipe of the plate.
Brett Gardner, who started for Johnny Damon in left, lofted a bases loaded sacrifice fly to score Wilson Betemit in the sixth for a 2-0 lead.
Mussina had Brett Gardner’s left arm to thank for getting out of the only jam he faced.
With one out in the first inning, Dustin Pedroia hit a single toward the left field line. Gardner, who started for an injured Johnny Damon, hustled to the ball and fired a one-hop strike to Robinson Cano at second ahead of a sliding Pedroia for the second out. The play looked a lot larger when Drew doubled to right-center and Mussina hit Ramirez with a 3-2 pitch. Mussina left two runners on by fanning Lowell on a 2-2 cut fastball clocked at 84 mph.
Mussina worked around Pedroia’s two-out single in the third by getting Drew to look at a 2-2 fastball on the inside corner.
Ramirez opened the fourth by getting hit but he never left first base because Cabrera made a diving catch in center on Lowell’s blooper, Youkillis flied to center and Crisp grounded out.
Jacoby Ellsbury’s two-out single was erased when Molina threw him out trying to steal second in the fifth. Mussina’s final inning consisted of him walking Drew with one out and leaving him there by getting Ramirez, a Yankees killer (.322; 55 HRs; 160 RBIs coming into the game), looking at a 2-2 pitch and Lowell on a fly to right.
