Sunday, May 4, 2008

Moose Survives 6 Innings, Yanks Win

Mike Mussina looked decent pitching yesterday and impressed Joe Girardi enough to leave him in the game through six whole innings and the Yankees ended up winning the game. Girardi was able to put in Hawkins, Ramirez and Veras for one inning each to finish up the game. If your starters can give you six or seven innings, you're more likely to win the game. Since you are using your relievers less, it also helps with tomorrow's game.

Mussina had some ups and downs. He looked sharp early on, and then got into some trouble. He got bailed out of some jams with double plays and a little luck. He came alive again in the sixth inning, striking out the side. Giving up only 1 run on 7 hits tells you that there was some luck involved, and Moose didn't quite dominate opposing batters. Yankee fans have to be happy that he was a little more economical with his pitches and lasted as long as he did.

Edwar Ramirez walked two batters in his scoreless inning. He definitely was struggling. I don't think Ramirez is ready yet. He's a guy with two pitches, a fastball and a change up. The change up only works if he establishes his fastball early on and he clearly couldn't do that last night.

LaTroy Hawkins was decent, but I'm still leery that he's going to blow up in a critical game sometime soon.

Jose Veras retired all 3 batters faced on only 10 pitches and closed out the game.

The offense was producing runs, but still left 10 men on base. Giambi and Cano both went hitless, doing little to help their case for remaining in the lineup.

I'm eager to watch Rasner pitch this afternoon, and hope he can do well enough to earn a long term spot on the rotation or as a long reliever. With Hughes out and Kennedy struggling, the Yanks could surely use it.

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