Moose Is The Man, Mo Bounces Back, Yanks Win 2-1

Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooosssssssse! That's my boy. Anyone who has read this blog frequently knows I'm a big Mike Mussina fan. I am completely overjoyed with how Moose has been pitching lately. Over his last 5 games, he's thrown 29.1 innings, given up 27 hits, 2 BB, has 17 K and an ERA of 2.76. Oh yeah, he's 5-0 in that stretch. Yeah, I think I need to do another Moose call. Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooosssssssse! He was awesome again tonight. He's no longer an overpowering pitcher, but you don't really have to be when you move the ball around like he's been doing. The defense definitely had his back tonight. It doesn't hurt either that he has a 20mph difference between his heater and his changeup. Al Leiter made mention during the broadcast that at best most pitchers are lucky to have a 15mph difference between those 2 pitches. Moose is putting up 20. The predictions of his impending demise have been greatly over exaggerated. He's now 6-3 on the season ans is tied for the league lead in wins. Suck on that Hank Steinbrenner. Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooosssssssse!

I thought Ross Ohlendorf was going to blow the victory for Moose. If not for a sweet 6-4 DP by Jeter and Cano he would have. That was definitely the game saver. I was a little peeved that Ross allowed the inherited runner to score which was charged to Moose. Ross got lucky there. The D picked him up.

Joba was pretty dominant tonight. I'm not a fan of the walks but I'll take the 3 Ks. His slider is wicked.

As we knew he would, Mariano bounced back well from his outing yesterday. Mo has the great ability to put the past in the past, which is probably one of the reasons why he's the greatest closer ever. It was great watching him strike out Evan Longoria. That wasn't even close to being fair. Have a seat rook. You just got schooled.

I would be pretty ticked off right now if I'm a Yankee pitcher. Where the heck is the run support? I know they were going up against James Shields who has been outstanding lately, but come on? 2 runs? Pathetic. They got lucky with the run Abreu knocked in. The only one who should get any props tonight was Robinson Cano. You can't have a much better night at the plate. Robbie goes 4 for 4 and raises his average from .183 to .205. For those of you that aren't mathematically inclined that's a 22 point jump. I guess he didn't like having the lowest average on the team. Robbie is starting to come around. He's now hit safely in 8 of his last 9 games, going 13-33 (.394) and raising his average 55 points (.150 to .205).

The top of the order absolutely stunk tonight. Collectively the 1-5 hitters went 2-19 with 1 BB and 6K, and 1 of those hits was a bloop single into no man's land. They've got to do better than that. They haven't been getting it done and they really need to.

Somebody tell Hank to chill out. The team is only 3.5 games out of first. It should be a lot worse. But it's not. Keep your head up Hank. We're in decent shape all things considered.

Tomorrow night marks the return of Ian Kennedy. He really needs to throw a good game if he wants to stay in the bigs. He had a great outing in Scranton and he needs to bring that game with him to the big stage. He goes up against Scott Kazmir which is no easy task, especially when the offense is struggling. Take care of business Ike. Earn your spot and get us back to .500 and within 2.5-3 games of the top.

Tomorrow's game is an odd 4:10 start. I'm not sure what that's all about but at least it's not starting at 1pm. I hope to catch the first part on the radio and the end on TV. I'm kind of glad it's an early start because there are a lot of good season finales on tomorrow night. I haven't been able to DVR CSI lately because of the games. It looks like a good one. I'm glad that the TV season is coming to an end because that means I don't have to miss anything.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie