Moose Pitches Great, Offense Shows Up, Yanks Win 6-1

I'm a little late in getting to my post-game entry but better late than never, right? I like giving the fam their time and I usually wait for them to go to sleep before I hit the PC. Today's game against the M's was a beauty. Good pitching, good hitting, a Yankees victory. What more can you ask for?

Mike Mussina had another solid outing, picking up his 4th victory . He lasted 6 innings, gave up 7 hits, 1 run, and K'd 5. His control was pin-point. He was hitting his spots and was changing speeds like only Moose can. I've said this after several of Moose's outings and I'll say it again. You can get by without a 90mph fastball if you can put a 20mph difference between your fastball and your changeup. If Moose can keep that up, he'll do very well this year. I was really impressed with his 6th and final inning when he struck out 3 batters. I never thought I'd see Moose send down 3 in the same inning again. Hopefully I'll see that again. Moose has had a pretty good year so far. Much better than last year's start. His only real bad outings were his 2 starts against Boston. In 2 starts against Boston, his ERA is about 9.25 (9 ERs in 8.2 IPs). In his other 5 starts, his ERA is about 3.74 (9 ERs in 29.2 IPs). In my opinion, Moose is a HOFer. If this is his last season in the bigs, I hope he goes out on a high note. I have a feeling he will.

The Yankees surprisingly hit Felix Hernandez pretty well today. I wasn't expecting that, but I'll gladly take it. I still think they blew some chances but they did more enough to secure a Moose victory. Johnny Damon has been on absolute fire lately. Coincidentally, his hot streak started about the same time I traded for him in a Diamond Mind league I'm in. I'll gladly take the credit thank you very much. All kidding aside, JD has been doing exactly what he needs to do as the leadoff guy and that's the set the table, or in his case, sometimes clear it, as he went deep for his 4th HR. Since 4/20, a span of 12 games, Johnny is 19-46 (.413) w/8 2B, 3 HR, 9 RBI, and 7 BB. That's pretty damn good. The rest of the offense today came from the usual cast of characters: 3 hits from Jeter and 2 hits a piece from Matsui, Abreu, and Melky. The above mentioned 5 guys are all hitting above .290. That's good. And then there's Giambi and Cano, who continue to slump, and that's not good. With A-Rod and Jorge on the shelf, the Yankees need those 2 to pick it up. Both are currently hitting around .150 and what's crazy is that Giambi's average is actually higher than Robbie's. How is that possible?

Cano is a slow starter. Last year it was mid-May before he really turned it on. On 5/17 of last year his average bottomed out at .234. It wasn't long before he had it up over .260 and it just kept climbing. Giambi on the other hand, well, he just sucks. He hasn't been right for some time now, but he's never been this bad. I'd much rather see the Yankees trot out Shelley Duncan every day. I've never been overly high on Duncan, but with him, I feel a shiver of hope. I'm devoid of any kind of hope when Giambi's in the box. It's getting sad. It really is.

Darrell Rasner makes his season debut tomorrow filling in for the injured Phil Hughes. D-Raz has been tearing things up in Scranton. In 5 starts, he's 4-0 with an ERA of 0.87. He's racked up 27 Ks to only 6 BB and the International League is only hitting .170 off him. He deserves the shot. He can't do any worse than Phil Hughes has done. It would be great to see a stellar outing from him so he can keep the confidence level high. The Mariners' bats have been flat this series and it may be the perfect opportunity for Rasner to put the Yankees a game over .500. What better way to head into a much deserved off day. Go get 'em D-Raz.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie