It wasn't the offensive explosion everyone's been waiting for, but a win is a win.
Mike Mussina continued his baseball renaissance, Robinson Cano collected four hits and Mariano Rivera got right back on the horse as the
Yanks nipped the Rays 2-1 in Tampa. The Bombers scratched out only seven hits, but they made the most of them and sparkling defense from Melky Cabrera, Cano, Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi (it's true!) helped snap a mini two-game skid.
The Good:Mike Mussina. The Magic Man continued to dazzle with his wizardly right arm. The Moose got into some trouble in the second, but a double play erased a leadoff single by Carlos Pena and after Cliff Floyd reached with two outs, Melky gunned out the husky lefty as he tried to advance to third on a base hit by Dioner Navarro. Mussina wouldn't allow a Tampa batter to get past second base the rest of the night. Moose is turning into the poor man's Greg Maddux and showed that confidence and location can sometimes trump speed and velocity. Mussina won his fifth straight game and improved to 6-3 on the year with this: 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 4 K. The following YouTube clip is for Magic Man Moose:
Robinson Cano. Robbie is off the interstate! Cano drove in the first run of the ballgame with a two out, RBI-single in the fourth to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead. Canu also made some nifty plays in the field, including a nice running catch in the ninth inning to help preserve the Yankee victory. The offense has looked stagnant and stale lately (and they didn't exactly tear it up on Wednesday), but if Cano regains his stroke it should help turn the tide. Cano finished 4 for 4 with an RBI and is now batting .205 on the year.
Bobby Abreu. It wasn't exactly a screaming line drive, but Abreu did provide the margin of victory for the Yanks with a two out bloop RBI-double in the fifth. It doesn't make up for his failure to drive in Jeter from third with one out in yesterday's game, but it'll do ... it'll do. Abreu finished 1 for 4 with a run batted in.
The Bad:Ross Ohlendorf. The O-man was summoned in the seventh with a runner on first and one out. His task -- protect a tenuous 2-0 lead. The results -- mixed. Ohlendorf gave up back-to-back singles that sliced the Yankee lead to 2-1. But fortune smiled on Ross and the Yanks when Jeter snagged a line drive off the bat of Gabe Gross and then flipped to Cano to double up Cliff Floyd at second. DJ was in the right spot at the right time and Floyd made a base running mistake. The results were positive and the box score won't show it, but Ohlendorf didn't look particularly good. Ohlendorf's line: .2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.
The Ugly:Boss Jr. speaks again.
Hank Steinbrenner continued to run his big mouth before Wednesday's game. The Yanks are obviously struggling and Boy George wasn't completely off with some of his comments. "The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of
playing," he said. Fair enough, even though "bottom line" are weasel words. But Hank can't help confusing people. "I'm not saying they are not giving the effort, but they need to be playing
harder." Not really sure what that means, professor. Anyway,
Joe Girardi held his first closed-door meeting before Wednesday's game and addressed the team for 30 minutes. G.I. Joe said it had nothing to do with Hank's comments. The Marlboro Man can say whatever he wants (he is in charge -- for better or worse), but it's comical that a guy who inherited the team from his pop says things like "These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for
themselves to earn that money." And we're only in the middle of May.
The Yanks will try and "earn" a split of the series on Thursday and will say hello to an old (young) friend. Ian Kennedy (0-2, 8.37 ERA) will make the start after an abbreviated stint in the minors. The Rays will send Scott Kazmir (1-1, 2.70 ERA) to the hill. Tampa battered Kennedy on April 4 for six runs in only 2 1/3 innings. Kazmir missed the first month of the season with an elbow injury, but signed a
four-year extension with the Rays on Wednesday. The young lefty is 2-3 with a 3.00 ERA in nine career appearances against New York.
Thursday's game has an unusual start time -- 4:00 in the p.m. -- so make a note of it. I-Kenn felt slighted when he was demoted and pitched lights-out in his
first start in Scranton.
Let's see if that fire translates with the
big club.
Leave a comment
Looks like Mussina is pushing for that ace role.