The obituaries on Mike Mussina’s career were written.
Three weeks ago the Yankees removed him from the starting rotation and many assumed that would be the end of the 38-year-old. Think again.
The Yankees pitcher showed his right arm still has something left in it with a brilliant performance in the Yankees’ 12-0 victory over Baltimore last night at Yankee Stadium in front of 52,685 fans.
Mussina (10-10) gave up three hits in seven innings and the Orioles were never in the game. He mixed speeds and had only four base runners as he won 10 games for the 16th consecutive year – an AL record. He has not given up a run in his last 122/3 innings.
“I felt like I could whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it,” Mussina said. “You don’t have very many days like that.”
The Yankees hit the trifecta again last night with their victory, Boston’s loss to Toronto and Detroit’s loss in Cleveland. They are now 2 1/2 games (two in the loss column) behind Boston in the AL East and 4 1/2 (five in the loss column) up on Detroit for the wild card. Their magic number to clinch the wild card is seven.
The Yankees needed a long outing from Mussina after burning through four relievers on Monday night. Joe Torre said before the game that Joba Chamberlain, Luis Vizcaino, Kyle Farnsworth and Mariano Rivera would not pitch. That left a thin bullpen, but its services were not needed as Mussina pitched deep into the night.
“He’s got a lot of life right now. It’s really good,” Torre said. “He’s throwing a lot of strikes. He looks like he’s pretty much able to do what he wants.”
As Mussina kept the Orioles off the scoreboard, the Yankees offense gave him the support he needed. They got to Baltimore starter Jon Leicester in a six-run fourth inning. Leicester matched zeroes with Mussina through three, but Hideki Matsui’s two-run double got the scoring started for the Yanks.
Robinson Cano knocked in Matsui on a single to center field. Then Doug Mientkiewicz blew the game open with a three-run blast over the right-field wall, giving the Yankees a 6-0 lead.
They tacked on a run in the sixth when Jorge Posada scored on a Melky Cabrera sacrifice fly. A five-run seventh put the lead into double digits and everyone’s eyes turned to the scoreboard to see what the Red Sox were doing in Toronto. The fans let out a cheer when the scoreboard showed the Blue Jays’ 4-3 victory.
The offense was impressive, but it was Mussina’s night at the stadium. Cries of “Mooooose” cascaded from the stands as he dominated the Orioles.
The 17-year veteran has gone from rotation outcast to probable fourth starter in the playoffs. The last spot in the postseason rotation seems to be between Mussina and rookie Phil Hughes. Hughes pitched well Monday but nowhere near as well as Mussina last night. Torre has said he’ll go with experience if all things are equal.
Mussina probably has two more starts depending on how the Yankees set their rotation next week. If he does make a postseason start, it will be a remarkable turnaround from where he was in August. He went 0-3 with a 17.69 ERA in three starts in August. The last one came on Aug. 27 in Detroit when he lasted just three innings, giving up six runs on nine hits.
“I had a couple of bad games, I had a couple of bad weeks,” Mussina said. “I had to let it go. I can’t go back and do anything differently. I can just go forward. After sitting around for a couple of days and finally figuring that out, I got it back together again.”
Torre replaced him in the rotation the day after the Motown meltdown. Rookie Ian Kennedy took his spot. At first, Mussina was angered, but soon he went to work and regained whatever was missing. He relieved Roger Clemens on Sept. 3, then made a start last Wednesday in Toronto. He threw 52/3 innings of scoreless baseball that night, giving the Yankees hope he had emerged from his funk.
Last night he confirmed it.