The schizophrenic season marches on.
Mike Mussina went six shiny innings, Johnny Damon picked up three more hits and drove in one and the pen combined for three scoreless innings as the
Yanks snuffed the Blue Jays 5-1 in the Bronx. Even a few unsung Bombers got into the act. Wilson Betemit belted his second homer of the season in the fourth and Jose Molina collected two hits and scored two runs.
And a little bit of history was made at The Stadium. Derek Jeter singled in the Yankees first run in the third (that wasn't the historic part) and moved ahead of Mickey Mantle for third place on the all-time Yankee hit list with 2,416. Only Babe Ruth (2,518) and Lou Gehrig (2,721) have had more. Congrats, Cap.
And it looks like
Jorge Posada will be making his way back into the pinstripes on Thursday. Reliever Dan Giese was sent back down to Scranton to make room on the Yanks active roster. It looks like Posada will need surgery on his shoulder after the season so everyone will be watching him with bated breath, but it's good to have No. 20 back.
The Good:Mike Mussina. Where would the Yanks be without The Moose? That's probably a stupid question since they are in last place
with him, but you know what I'm getting at. Mussina turned in another sparkler Wednesday night. He had everything working for him and tied Joe Saunders for the league lead in wins. Mussina's only mistake came in the sixth when he spun a curveball to Scott Rolen for an RBI-double. The Moose has really impressed this season and I don't have that feeling of impending doom when he takes the hill anymore. I hope that feeling and the results last. Mussina moved to 9-4 with this gem: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 6 K.
Johnny Damon. The hits just keep on coming for Johnny D. Damon cracked three hits for the second straight night and is hitting a blistering .562 in his past seven games. JD also provided a big pick-me-up with a two-out, RBI-single in the sixth to give the Yanks 4-1 lead. Johnny has also pushed his average to .310 overall on the season. Who knows what he could hit if he grew back the beard? Damon finished 3 for 4 with an RBI.
Kyle Farnsworth. It wasn't exactly a pressure situation (Yanks up 5-1), but Farnsworth entered the game in the eighth inning throwing smoke. Kyle was a strike-throwing machine and put the Jays down in order on 13 pitches (nine going for strikes). YES had a telling stat on Farnsy and here it is in case you missed it. Since 2007, Farnsworth's ERA in the seventh inning is 2.87. Pretty solid. But it's 5.47 in the eighth inning. What a difference an inning makes. Well, Kyle flipped the script on Wednesday, let's hope there's more of that to come. Farnsworth's night: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.
The Bad:Bobby Abreu. Every Yankee had at least one hit on Wednesday -- all but one. Yep, Abreu took the 0'fer, but managed to work out a walk and came around to score the Yankees final run on Hideki Matsui's RBI-single in the seventh. Abreu has gone hitless since lining a single off the face of Twins pitcher Nick Blackburn on Sunday (0 for 14). Shake it off, Bobby. Abreu finished 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.
The Ugly: Numerology. The bullpen pulled their weight, but the numbers before tonight's performance have been downright ghoulish. Vinny from Kearny e-mailed me this ugliness from a story he read in the
Star-Ledger, but I can't find the article. But here's what it said: Since the announcement that Joba Chamberlain would move to the rotation, relievers other than closer Mariano Rivera and Chamberlain have combined for a 6.35 ERA and allowed 10 of 17 inherited runners to score. If that trend continues there is no way the Yanks will ever move more than a few games over .500 on the year.
Chien-Ming Wang (6-2, 4.14 ERA) will try and give the Yanks the rubber match against Dustin "Mutton Chop" McGowan (4-4, 3.95 ERA) on Thursday afternoon. McGowan picked up a no-decision against the Bombers in a 3-2 Blue Jay loss on April 3 at The Stadium. Dusty has won two games in a row and pitches well during the daylight hours (2.37 ERA), but has a 5.68 ERA on the road this year. Jeter is a .389 career hitter against McGowan (7 for 18). The Wanger has been off and hasn't won a game since May 2 (he's 0-2 with three no-decisions during that span). Wang picked up his first win of the season against Toronto on April 1, going seven strong in a 3-2 final. No. 40 is 4-2 with a 3.98 ERA in eight career starts against the Blue Jays. Wang also pitches well under the sun -- 2.33 ERA. Aaron Hill owns Wang (10 for 17, .588), but he's missed time due to a
concussion suffered Thursday in Oakland.
Time to get Wang back on track.
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Mussina has definitely been the nice surprise of the season. Maybe he can get his first 20-win season. I don't think he ever won 20, right?