All-Star game done, we can win again
Moose got a hit but no win in his first start after cursed All-Star night.
Mike Mussina singled to left in the seventh inning for his first hit in six years. The Yankees' pitchers had been 0 for 15 before Mussina connected, and he had a simple explanation: he wore his pant legs high for the first time as a Yankee. "My 5-year-old told me to," Mussina said. "He said, 'You'll hit better, Dad, if you pull your pants up.' "
Anyone else remember Mike getting the first interleague hit for Orioles' pitchers? No picture of this month's hit has surfaced, but his Mustache Day did. And reports said Mike did indeed go to the county fair. MLB.com had a nice look back at his season so far, and an interesting analysis popped up in the Philadelphia Daily News….
The book has a bubbly foreword by good friend Jayson Stark, who has never met a baseball number he didn't cherish. There's a chapter on Michael Jordan's lone season in Birmingham, Ala. There's a wonderful segment about the 2001 Cy Young Award selection of Roger Clemens (20-3) over Mike Mussina (17-11).
Abracadabra and Seidman "adjusts" Clemens' record to 14-9 and Mussina's to 21-7. "Based on peripherals that include innings pitched, walks, strikeouts, skill level and frequency of well-pitched games, there really is no question that Mussina had a much better season," he writes.
That should go over like a 14-inning game on getaway night with the baseball scribes. "I'm not trying to anger anyone," he explains. "I just want people to take a different look at the numbers and not be intimidated by them."
The second start of the second half fared better, looking strong in a 7-1 victory over Oakland. "The 39-year-old right-hander allowed eight singles and a double, but did not walk a batter for the eighth time this year," the Associated Press wrote. "Relying on pinpoint control, he has 16 walks in 20 starts spanning 113 1-3 innings." Following up, Strategic Failure noted the next pitcher on the all-time win list and Mike's improving ranking in strikeout history.
A 5-1 win over Minnesota came next, before a weird and ugly game vs. Baltimore. ("It wasn't awful stuff, but it wasn't good stuff.") But the O's loss was redeemed by The Onion writing just for me: "McSweeney's Rejects Mike Mussina's Seventh Consecutive Submission." And how happy were we to see Manny go to the NL? If only we could get Millar to follow. There's now a MussinaHoF.com site running.
Next start: This afternoon against the tough Angels.
Update at 11:47 p.m. ET: Angels lose. That's win 14 and 264.
"Mussina retired the final 17 batters he faced in seven solid innings," says the AP, with some side talk of Gold Glove-level work on the mound. The NYT ups things with a heck of verb: "After allowing two runs in the second, Mussina never seemed seriously troubled by the Angels as he coolly defanged their offense."
