Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Moose Call (Postgame Notes 23 April 2008)

Performances from Mike Mussina like the one the Yankees got tonight reminds you why the Yankees signed him in the first place.

Mussina pitched a gem--seven innings, two runs (each on a solo HR) and four hits. That's the kind of start the Yankees expect from Wang and Pettitte; to get that from Mussina has to be very reassuring.

He's not quite the burnt toast that everyone seems to think he is.

The bullpen, however, is another story. A 6-2 lead in the eighth should not necessitate a five-out save from Mariano Rivera, but with the Yankees, it invariably does.

This is going to become the elephant in the room, if the bullpen can't hide behind a poor effort from a starter, and they will be able to do that less and less as the season goes on and the starters (hopefully) get stronger. The frustration is that one day the bullpen will be lights out, unhittable, but then, in a game like today's, the set up men can not get the job done.

That said, had Jason Giambi slightly more range, he would have likely gotten to the grounder off of Traber, and Rivera may have not had to come in in the eighth.

The offense had a good game tonight--scratching out their first run and getting the next five on solid hitting without any home runs. It finally seems like the offense is beginning to come around--Damon had another good game, and Posada, with three doubles, may have had his best game of the season.

OPTIMIST TAKE: The Yankees have won three straight and are now two games over .500. After losing the series to Baltimore, they can go for the sweep against Chicago tomorrow. They are now above .500 on the second half of the ROAD TRIP OF DOOM. As said above, the Yankee bats are beginning to pick it up.

1 comment:

  1. Yes, that Moose performance brings back some memories...wonder if it'll be a trend or just an aberration...

    And what do we do about that pen?

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