River Avenue Blues

Game 33: To sweep, or not to sweep

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Joe and Ben are both at the game today, so I’m your host for the afternoon. They’ll get to see the triumphant return of Darrell Rasner, one of the more underappreciated arms in the organization. He’s not flashy and he doesn’t have the overpowering stuff, but he throws strikes and keeps the ball in the park, which is more than say, Bronson Arroyo is doing these days.

Rasner will face perennial punching bag Carlos Silva as the Yanks shoot for their first sweep of a three game series this year. Hopefully facing Silva allows them to keep distancing themselves from that frustrating “score some runs early then go into hibernation” routine.

To make room for Rasner, Brian Bruney was shifted to the 60-day DL (to clear a 40-man spot) and IPK was demoted to Triple-A Scranton (to clear a 25-man spot). IPK’s elgible to be called back up on May 14th, four days after the next time the Yanks will need a fifth starter. So unless someone gets injured between now and then, it’ll probably be Kei Igawa or Steven White on the 10th in Detroit. The Yanks’ patience lasts only 6 games, I see. 

Can you hear all the Dodgers’ fans crying bloody murder over Chad Billingsley’s poor start? I sure can’t.

The lineup:

The team’s leader in slugging percentage, LF
Jessica Alba’s baby daddy, SS
The offensive MVP, RF
Godzilla, DH
Thank goodness there’s only 1 year left on his deal, 1B
The guy who kidnapped Melky Cabrera and is playing his place, CF
He won’t hit .150-.213-.230 all year, right?, 2B
The guy that’s hit exactly 36 HR since hitting 36 HR in 2005, 3B
Chad “is this what we’ve come to” Moeller, C

Notes: Looks like Latrell Spreewell needed that money to feed his family after all.

A clinic in pitching

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A short wrap-up for you because I’m heading off to the new beer garden in Prospect Heights: Mike Mussina is thriving this year not because he’s a better pitcher but because he’s pitching better. It’s a subtle difference, but what we’re seeing this year is a clinic in pitching by an old master who many of us — including me — had written off. Mike Mussina has learned how to use his killer breaking pitches and the “slow, slower, slowest” approach to set up an average fastball. His striking out the side in the sixth was masterful.

So now, over his last three starts, Mussina has given the Yankees 18 innings. He’s allowed 18 hits while walking just two batters and striking out 10. He’s 3-0 over that span, and his ERA is 2.50. I, for one, am enjoying the career resurgence of Mussina, and I’m happy to see that I was wrong in calling him a dead Moose a little under a month ago.

Game 32: Age, youth square off

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Mike Mussina made his Major League debut on August 4, 1991, losing 1-0 to 43-year-old Charlie Hough. Felix Hernandez, the Mariners’ young stud, was all of five years old at the time.

Today, Mussina and the 253 games he has won since that debut loss will face off against Felix Hernandez, 22, and his 32 career wins. This could be quite the match-up. On one side, we’ve got Hernandez — anointed the King — a power pitcher with 41 strike outs in 44.1 innings this year. His ERA is a measly 2.22. On the other side is Mike Mussina who no longer generates too many swing-and-misses. His 12 strike outs has Moose sitting pretty at 3.34 K/9 IP, a career low. Mussina today relies on guile as he attempts to get hitters to swing weakly at breaking pitches and slow change ups.

For Mussina, this style of pitching has worked lately. Remove the Red Sox from his 2008 equation, and Moose has given up 8 earned runs in 23.2 innings, good for a 3.04 ERA. That’s downright great for a Yankee rotation struggling to prevent runs. Mussina won’t give the Yanks much in the way of distance; he tires around the five-inning mark. But he sure can hold his own against Hernandez.

Meanwhile, the struggling Yankee offense continues to run into brick walls. After facing Eric Bedard, they draw another Seattle ace in King Felix. Opponents are hitting .238/.306/.335, and the Yankees will go with their typical lineup these days.

Johnny Damon LF
Derek Jeter SS
Bob Abreu RF
Hideki Matsui DH
Jason Giambi 1B
Melky Cabrera CF
Robinson Cano 2B
Morgan Ensberg 3B
Jose Molina C

Mike Mussina P

Yanks set to shatter all sorts of attendance records

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Shortly before beating the Mariners last night, the Yankees announced that the franchise had set yet another baseball first. The Yankees became the first team in Major League history to sell four million tickets four years in a row. Word is that most of the games throughout the summer are sold out, and the Yanks, averaging over 50,000 fans over their first 12 home games, could see close to 4.5 million people pass through the Yankee Stadium turnstiles. Remind me again why the Yanks absolutely need that new stadium.

The evolution of Chien-Ming Wang

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When Chien-Ming Wang first arrived in the Bronx, it was clear from the start that Wang had the stuff to be successful. Throughout his first three seasons in the Bigs, we grew to know and love that heavy sinker and Wang’s stellar groundball rate. But something’s changed this year, and it’s for the better.

This year, as we’ve seen over Wang’s first seven starts, the right-hander — once so reliant on his sinker to get outs — has picked up a few stellar secondary pitches and has learned how to pitch in a way that lets him dominate a game. Look at his numbers: On the season, Wang has thrown 45 innings, and he’s 6-0 with a 3.00 ERA, and over his last three outings, he’s given up 4 earned runs on 17 hits in 19 innings.

Of the numbers, the most important one to me is Wang’s strike out rate. In the early going this year, Wang’s K totals are well above his career norm. Over his last 19 innings, he’s struck out 19 batters, and on the season, he is average 6.40 Ks per 9 IP. With his normally stellar walk rate, his K/BB is now 2.46.

For the last few years, stats-minded analysts have blown their collective gaskets trying to figure out the success of Chien-Ming Wang, and were it not for my seeing him pitch every five days, I’d be right there with them. How did a guy with a career K/9 IP of under 4.00 prior to this year find a way to win more games in the Majors than anyone else over two years while keeping his ERA under 4.00? It didn’t make sense.

Now, we all know that Wang’s non-traditional success came via those groundballs. When he is on, he can command a double play at will, and Major League hitters look foolish topping his pitches. This year, though, with sliders, sinkers, fastballs and a few change ups, Wang has upped his pitching in a way that cements his status as the Yankee ace. He’s keeping runners off base, and he’s keeping balls out of play. That is a sure recipe for success.

As we all know — and as Hank Steinbrenner reminded us tonight — the Yankees have had a tough go of it lately. They’re one game under .500, and the offense isn’t doing much of anything right now. But every five days, Wang takes the mound, and it’s a beacon of very bright light every day. Watching a pitcher put everything together is a real pleasure, and Wang is living the dream. He will lose a few games this season, and he’s facing Cliff Lee and his sub-1.00 ERA next week. But it’s been quite the roll for a pitcher who almost ended up signing with the Mariners seven years ago.