AN OLD ENEMY VISITS MOOSE!
Three home runs sink Mussina; Yankees

Mike Mussina is a wonderful pitcher. The Yankees were lucky to land him after a successful career in Baltimore. The one knock on the Moose is his propensity for giving the home run ball. In his career Mike Mussina has given up 278 home runs. He gave up 21 dingers this year. However, that was improvement over last year when he surrendered 27.

Tonight, Mussina, coming off a solid performance in Game 1 of the ALDS, started Game 1 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium against the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox, as everyone who is a baseball fan knows, are the Yankees longest and fiercest rival. Boston countered Mussina by starting journeyman pitcher Tim Wakefield.

The game started off innocently enough as both Wakefield and Mussina retired the opposite sides 1-2-3 in the first inning. The second and third innings came and went without either the Sox or the Yanks scoring a run. However, in the fourth inning the ghost of Babe Ruth left the building, took a nap or went to the bathroom. Mussina faced Manny Ramirez, who up to this point was batting a buck ninety in the playoffs. Moose threw Ramirez a tough pitch which he hit off the end of his bat to the right side of the mound. The ball took a high bounce and Mussina, coming off the mound, made a leap to snag it. The ball bounced off his glove and rolled between Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson. Soriano tried to scoop it to Johnson for the out, but couldn't come up with the ball. Ramirez was aboard.

The next batter, David Ortiz, wasn't hitting much better than Ramirez. He had only collected his first hit in Game 4 of the ALDS. He finally got a solid hit against the Oakland Athletics pitching staff in the bottom of the ninth inning when he hit a two-run double off the right field wall. Mussina quickly got ahead Ortiz who fell behind 0-2. Mussina tried to peck around the plate and Ortiz kept fouling off or letting pitches off the plate go. He finally worked the count to 3-2 before Mussina grooved one down the middle and into Ortiz' wheelhouse. Ortiz hit a monster shot into the upper deck in right field and the Red Sox led 2-0.

The Yankees offense continued an anemic performance and went quietly in the bottom of the fourth inning. In the top of the fifth inning the Moose, again, took the hill. The first batter he face was Todd Walker. Walker promptly homered to right field and the score was 3-0. There was a bit of a controversy as first base umpire Angel Hernandez ruled that Walker's shot had gone just foul to the right of the foul pole. However, the Sox appealed and home plate umpire Tim McClelland overruled Hernandez and awarded Walker the home run. Replays of the hit confirmed that Walker's ball did, indeed, hit the foul pole. The score was now 3-0.

Mussina retired the next two batters, Bill Mueller and Nomar Garciaparra, before facing Manny Ramirez again. Ramirez, who collected four hits on the night, didn't disappoint his teammates as he took the Moose deep for the third time making the score 4-0. Mussina lasted just 5-2/3 innings as the damage was done. With the Yankee offense collecting a total of 3 hits on the night three home runs were more than enough to win the first game of the Championship Series.

Tim Wakefield, pitched a great game. His knuckleball, when working, is one of the nasitest pitches in baseball. It was working. The Yankees could only manage 2 hits off Wakefield in 6 innings of work. He left the game with two runners on. Reliever Alan Embree gave up a double to Jorge Posada who scored from second base. The Yankees' second run was scored when Hideki Matsui knocked in Bernie Williams from third base with a sacrifice fly. That was the extent of the Yankees offense.

Maybe Mike Mussina and the Yankees had too much rest, while Boston, coming off a tough five-game series with the Oakland Athletics, were a little more battle hardened. Whatever the reason, the Red Sox looked ready to play. The Yankees looked ready for a nap.

Tomorrow night the Yankees send Andy Pettitte to the mound. Pettitte pitched a bleed stopping game in Game 2 of the ALDS to help the Yankees even the series at one apiece with the Minnesota Twins. The Yankees are now in that same situation and Andy will need to muster up another bandaid. The Yankees don't want to leave the Bronx and go to Fenway Park down two games to none. And while they're at it, the offense might want to call on Jobu of "Major League" fame to get their bats going.

That's all for now. See you for Game 2. Go Yankees.....please!

PLAY BALL!

(c) 2003 Yankees Talk Shop @ ezboard.com

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