Yankees 3
White Sox 1
CHICAGO – Being the elder statesman of the Yankees’ revamped rotation, Mike Mussina is in the position to dispense advice.
Last night against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, he did it very well, without uttering a word.
With the Yankees desperately needing a win after two brutal performances against the putrid Devil Rays that fueled speculation about Joe Torre’s job security, Mussina delivered a stellar performance.
The righty pitched the Yankees to a 3-1 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 39,496 that also witnessed the AL Central-leading White Sox lose their sixth straight game.
“We are doing a lot of preparing with the new guys, [Shawn] Chacon and Al [Leiter], and Randy [Johnson] hasn’t been in the [American] League for seven or eight years,” Mussina said. “I am spending more time than in the past with other pitchers preparing and other things. Maybe it has helped me prepare better by helping them prepare better.”
Mussina couldn’t have been much better than he was. In seven innings he allowed one run and five hits, two of which were bloop singles in the first inning, when the White Sox scored their only run.
“After [the first] I made good pitches and got in good counts,” said Mussina, who faced the White Sox without leadoff hitter Scott Podsednik (disabled list) and cleanup hitter Paul Konerko (scratched with a back ailment). “I wasn’t 2-0 or 3-1 very often.”
Mussina gave up three hits in the first, when he left runners on first and second. After that, he allowed a single to Jermaine Dye in the sixth and a single to Geoff Blum in the seventh.
“He gave us what we needed,” a relieved Torre said of Mussina, who improved to 12-7. “He has been a leader on the ballclub since the rotation got beat up. He has been as consistent as they come.”
Mussina exited after 115 pitches and was replaced by Tom Gordon.
Gordon surrendered a leadoff single to Tadahito Iguchi and then fanned Carl Everett and A.J. Pierzynski before getting Dye on a pop foul to Alex Rodriguez.
Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth for his 33rd save.
The Yankees remain 1½ games back of Oakland in the wild-card race and four games behind AL East-leading Boston, both of which won last night.
Mussina had to be as good as he was because the Yankees didn’t do much against Jon Garland (16-7).
Gary Sheffield’s two-out RBI single in the third tied the score, 1-1. Derek Jeter drove in a run in the fifth with a groundout and Bernie Williams followed with a two-out single that plated Robinson Cano.
Williams, who moved into the second spot when Torre dropped Cano to ninth, went 2-for-4. So did Cano and Sheffield.
“This is Bernie’s time of the year,” Torre said. “I have been saying that as long as I have known him. He seems to rise to the occasion.”
With Mussina’s fastball crisp and his breaking ball sharp, Jorge Posada enjoyed the view.
“It was fun back there,” Posada said. “I knew I had a lot of weapons. He was throwing strike one, strike two and then we could put them away with a fastball or curveball.”
Much has been made of the fact that the Yankees must win the games started by Mussina and Johnson. But to Mussina that doesn’t make sense.
“That puts more pressure on you, where every pitch is life and death and you don’t perform well,” Mussina said.
AL EAST RACE
TEAM REC GB
Red Sox 70-50 –
Yankees 66-54 4