Solid starting pitching, four homers and shutout relief -- these are the three components teams use to win ballgames.
Mike Mussina went five strong, Johnny Damon homered and doubled in the go-ahead run and the bullpen combined to throw four scoreless innings as the
Yanks doubled up the Indians 6-3 to salvage one out of three against Cleveland.
The Bombers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in this one only to have the Tribe tie it in the fifth, but Damon's double in the bottom of the frame and back-to-back jacks by Robinson Cano and Wilson Betemit in the seventh was too much for the Indians. The Yanks blasted four bombs in all -- even Jason Giambi went deep -- and evened their record to 18-18 on the season.
I was at work for this one, but I was listening to John and Suzy call the action. I was also reading
Brian's live blog throughout the afternoon. Let's round this bad boy up.
The Good:Mike Mussina. The Moose continued to show he hasn't forgotten how to get batters out. Mussina gave up only one hit through the first four innings before hitting a rough patch in the fifth. You can complain that Mussina only went five (if you want to be pessimistic), but since this is his fourth straight solid outing and he's gone less than five innings only once this season, I'm going to be optimistic. I would have signed up in a heartbeat for a 10-win season from The Moose at the start of the year. Well, don't look now, but he's halfway there. Mussina improved to 5-3 with this line: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 hit batsman.
Johnny Damon. Positively Damonic! Johnny D got the Yankee home run barrage going with a solo blast in the fourth inning. Then with the score tied at 3-3 in the fifth, Damon blooped a two-out, opposite-field double to bring in the go-ahead run. Check out this
stat: in the Yankees wins this season, Damon is batting .377, but he's batting just .188 in losses. Keep on hitting, Johnny! Damon finished 2 for 4 with a run scored and 2 RBI.
The pen. The Yankees greatest strength so far this season has been the bullpen and the guys in the outfield flexed their muscles again on Thursday afternoon. The trifecta of Ross Ohlendorf, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera combined to shut down the Indians for four innings. Ohlendorf went two solid, Chamberlain showed no ill-effects from his meltdown Tuesday night and Rivera has yet to give up a run in 2008. The three relievers combined to produce this: 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K.
The Bad:Melky Cabrera. There were only two Yankees who didn't reach base on Thursday and Melky was one of them. Jose Molina was the other, but he escapes the "bad" place since he was on the receiving end of an impressive pitching performance. The Yanks trotted out four hurlers and not one of them issued a walk. I'll give Molina some credit for that. Cabrera finished 0 for 3.
The Ugly:Stuck at work. I was lucky enough to listen to the game while performing my duties (some fans aren't as fortunate), but it still sucked. I mean people still expected me to work for some reason. Are they crazy? There's a game going on!
The Yanks are hitting the road and the first stop is the Motor City.
Kei Igawa (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will make his first appearance of the year and will lock horns with Kenny Rogers (2-3, 6.27 ERA). The Gambler defeated the Yanks on April 29 in the Bronx, but he owns a 7.71 ERA at home and a 6.75 ERA at night so far this season. Igawa went 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA in Scranton and will be facing the Tigers for the first time.
Give me a reason to believe, Kei.
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