B-u-l-l-p-e-n Doesn't Spell Relief, But Yanks Win 8-7

Trio Nearly Blow Mussina Gem

Mike Mussina (5-1) retired to the Yankee dugout one batter into the 7th inning. He had thrown just 86 pitches and left with an 8-1 lead. Aaron Small, Kyle Farnsworth, and even Mariano Rivera had Mussina and the rest of the Yankees biting their nails as they barely hung on for an 8-7 victory.

Joe Torre decide to conserve some of Mussina's strength with his next start coming against the Red Sox next week. Mussina had allowed a lead off single to Kevin Mench to start the eighth. It was just the third hit Mussina had allowed and the first since the 4th inning. Aaron Small was the first to job in from the pen and was quickly greeted by consecutive singles by Brad Wilkerson and Rod Barajas for the Rangers second run of the game, and the final run changed to Mussina. After Mark DeRosa's fielder's choice knocked in another run, Gary Matthews Jr. chased Small with another single. Michael Young greeted Kyle Farnsworth with a single to load the bases, bringing the dangerous Mark Texeira to the plate. Farnsworth battled to strike him out for the second out of the inning. He wasn't so lucky with Phil Nevin who walked to forced in the third run of the inning to cut the lead to 8-4.

Mariano Rivera came on to try to kill the rally, but Hank Blalock, who is now 4-9 lifetime against the Yankee closer, singled to right to cut the lead to 8-6. Mench's second single of the inning narrowed the margin to one run and brought Torre out to the mound to settle down Rivera. Mo quickly got ahead of Brad Wilkerson 0-2, but then hit him to once again load the bases. Barajas finally ended the inning when his one-hopper was handled by Robinson Cano who stepped on second to force out Wilkerson.
Rivera allowed a one-out single to Matthews in the 9th, but retired Young and Texeira to notch his 6th save.

The Yankees looked like they were going to have a laugher against Rangers starter Vincente Padilla (3-2). Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter started the first with consecutive singles to put Padilla in an immediate jam. Gary Sheffield struck out, but Jason Giambi drew his 31st walk of the season to load the bases. Alex Rodriguez slow grounder forced Giambi at second, but brought Damon across for a 1-0 lead. Consecutive walks by Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada forced in a second run before Padilla got Cano to fly out to left.

Matsui's doubled to left to start another rally in the 4th with the Yankees leading 2-1. A one-out single by Cano and a walk to Bernie Williams loaded the bases for Johnny Damon. Damon's deep fly to left was missed by Wilkerson to produce a long single and a 3-1 lead. Jeter hit a potential double play grounder to Hank Blalock at third, but DeRosa came off of second base early and Jeter beat the relay to first for a 4-1 lead and the bases remained loaded. Somehow Blalock was charged with the error even though his throw was accurate. Padilla retired Sheffield on a pop-up, but then once again walked Giambi to force a run across. Buck Showalter finally made a pitching change when Alex Rodriguez's line drive 2-run single up the middle nearly took Padilla's head off and increased the lead to 7-1. When Jeter added a tack on run with an RBI single in the fifth, no one realized it would be the difference in the ball game.

Notes

Mike Mussina kept his streak alive with a quality start in every one of his 7 appearances. The victory was the 229th of his career.

Bernie Williams has 6 hits in his last 13 trips to increase his average to .260. The same as Alex Rodriguez who got there with 2 hits last night.