Victory, yes, but ouch this hurt.
Of course, the first reaction any time Derek Jeter leaves a game after only two innings is he must really be hurting. The Yankee captain departed the Stadium last night with strained left quadriceps, an injury that could have him headed to the disabled list for the fifth time in his career.
The Yankees beat the Rays 6-1 to get a split of the four-game series, but now there is worry about their shortstop.
Jeter, who was replaced at the start of the third inning, first felt soreness while running to first base on Sunday. He hurt his quad again yesterday while motoring down the first base line in the first inning to avoid a double play. An already stretched thin unit – Jason Giambi is nursing a sore left groin and Shelley Duncan finishing a two-game suspension – went with Wilson Betemit at shortstop and Morgan Ensberg at first base for the game’s remainder.
Jeter had an MRI exam after he came out and has what the Yankees are calling a mild sprain. Manager Joe Girardi said Jeter won’t play this afternoon in Kansas City.
“It’s going to be at least a few days,” Girardi said.
A total wet blanket wasn’t tossed over the evening, thanks to Mike Mussina’s dominant performance over six innings. The right-hander allowed one earned run on two hits with one walk and three strikeouts, picking up where Chien-Ming Wang left off the previous day.
After a shaky start to the extended weekend, with Ian Kennedy and Andy Pettitte bombing, Yankees pitchers held Tampa Bay to one run over the final 19 innings of the series.
Though Girardi indicated Joba Chamberlain was available, a day after the right-hander fired two shutout innings of relief, the manager didn’t need him. Brian Bruney, Kyle Farnsworth and LaTroy Hawkins managed just fine, combining for three innings of shutout relief.
Mussina’s outing was an improvement from his start last Wednesday when he allowed three earned runs on eight hits over 5″ innings in a loss to the Blue Jays.
“For the most part I thought his stuff was pretty crisp [against Toronto] and he threw a pretty good game,” Joe Girardi said before last night’s first pitch. “I was pretty happy and just would like him to build on it.”
Mission accomplished, as Mussina had a vintage performance, moving the game along rapidly in his 82-pitch effort. Along the way he struck out Jonny Gomes in the fifth inning for career strikeout 2,668, moving him into a tie with David Cone for 21st place on baseball’s all-time list.
The Yankees pulled away in the seventh, scoring twice against Jason Hammel (0-1) to give his team a 4-1 cushion. Bobby Abreu opened with a triple and scored on Alex Rodriguez’s broken-bat single before Hideki Matsui smashed an RBI double. In the seventh Matsui delivered an RBI single against reliever Scott Dohmann before Robinson Cano singled home an additional run.
Abreu provided the most offensive heroics, going 3-for-3, missing only a double for the cycle. It was his two-run homer in the first that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Mussina retired the first six batters he faced before Gomes homered into the left-field seats leading off the third, slicing the Yankees’ lead to 2-1. It was the second homer of the series for Gomes, who missed Friday’s game while serving a suspension from his role in last month’s spring training fracas with the Yanks.
Abreu homered with two outs in the first, a two-run shot down the right-field line, to get the Yankees started.
Johnny Damon singled leading off the inning and Jeter followed with a grounder to third on which he motored to barely avoid a double play. Abreu then hit a line drive that barely cleared the fence near the foul pole in right for his first homer of the season.