MLB

MUSSINA: DEMOTION CHANCE TO GET RIGHT

Mike Mussina broke his silence yesterday, speaking to reporters about the Yankees’ decision Tuesday to pull him from the rotation.

The 38-year-old clearly was unhappy with the decision, but gave measured answers after taking a few days to digest the move.

“It’s pretty tough,” Mussina said before the Yankees beat the Red Sox 5-0. “For someone who has been in the rotation for 17 years it caught me off guard. That’s probably why I needed two days to simmer down.”

Yankees manager Joe Torre decided to skip Mussina in the rotation, giving tomorrow’s start against the Devil Rays to Ian Kennedy, making his major league debut, instead. Mussina has been awful in his last three starts, going 0-3 with a 17.70 ERA.

Mussina hopes getting a rest does as much for him mentally as physically.

“I’ve got to get my head in the right place,” he said. “I really wasn’t feeling very positive about the way I was pitching.”

The 17-year veteran hopes the break gives him some time to heal. Mussina said he has had a few nagging injuries that have plagued him for most of the season.

Mussina said he was “mad at the whole situation,” but did not criticize Torre’s decision. He admitted his confidence sagged as things went south for him.

“I was to the point where, especially when balls aren’t hit very good and they fall in, you just feel like there’s nothing I can do to change this and you just get a bad attitude,” Mussina said. “That’s where I was. Every ball I threw I thought something bad was going to happen. I thought it was going to be a ball or if I did make a good pitch he’d foul it off or get a base hit. That’s how I felt. It’s really, really difficult to pitch that way.”

Mussina said this has been the toughest thing he’s had to deal with in his career.

“I’ve been pitching a long time,” he said. “My job’s been an important one for a long time. To go through this, to deal with the last two weeks of my pitching then have this change, it’s new. It’s something I’ve never had to deal with before.

“Hopefully it will make me a better player and make me learn how to deal with things better. It’s coming to that time where eventually I’m not going to be doing this anymore. I know that. It’s not too far in the future.”