Mussina, Yankees unable to stop Sox

[BuckFoston]

One day after the Yankees suffered their most lopsided loss ever to the Red Sox, the Bronx Bombers were hoping that Mike Mussina would come out and continue his magical May in the series finale.

Mussina didn't deliver, getting smoked for five runs in three innings, as Boston took the rubber match from New York at Yankee Stadium by a 7-2 final.

The loss snapped Mussina's four-game winning streak, also bringing the Yankees' streak of six series wins in a row to an end.

"All of the things that made the last month good, all the weapons I had -- the ability to throw breaking balls for strikes, to throw the fastball in and out -- I didn't have any of that today," Mussina said. "It's tough to pitch against any lineup -- let alone theirs -- without any weapons. I didn't have any today."

The loss dropped the Yankees into a third-place tie with the Blue Jays, though they remain 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Orioles. The Red Sox are now in second, a half-game ahead of New York and Toronto.

"It's not a step back," said Mussina. "We're still 3 1/2 out, the division has tightened up a bit, and we've played tremendous baseball to get back to this point. To play poorly two days in a row doesn't dictate anything."

The Yankees end their homestand with a 4-2 record, as they prepare to embark on a 12-game road trip through the Midwest, their longest of the season. New York has won 16 of its last 20 contests, making up 5 1/2 games in the standings during that stretch.

"We've been on a good run," said manager Joe Torre. "We just had a bad couple of days."

Mussina struggled from the outset, serving up a two-run, upper-deck shot to David Ortiz with one out in the first. Although he gave up just one more hit in the inning, he needed a whopping 35 pitches to record the first three outs, a sign that he wasn't going to be around very long.

"He was just flat," Torre said. "His stuff didn't look like it had a lot of bite on it. You could see he was frustrated."

Derek Jeter and Gary Sheffield tied the game up with two swings in the bottom of the first, drilling solo homers off David Wells.

Red Sox Coverage
• Singer: Slump to super in 18 innings
• Trio of Sox socks it to Yankees
• Boomtown revival in New York
• Notes: Bronx bartering
• Ortiz highlight reel: 350K
• Renteria, Ortiz go back-to-back: 350K
• Ortiz's two-run blast: 350K
Yankees Coverage
• Mussina, Yankees unable to stop Sox
• Notes: Matsui suffering power outage
• Jeter's solo homer: 350K
• Sheffield goes deep: 350K
• Bernie's tumbling catch: 350K
Season Series
• 05/29: Red Sox 7, Yankees 2
• 05/28: Red Sox 17, Yankees 1
• 05/27: Yankees 6, Red Sox 3

• 04/14: Red Sox 8, Yankees 5
• 04/13: Yankees 5, Red Sox 2
• 04/11: Red Sox 8, Yankees 1

• 04/06: Red Sox 7, Yankees 3
• 04/05: Yankees 4, Red Sox 3
• 04/03: Yankees 9, Red Sox 2

But Mussina couldn't take control of Boston's offense, needing 23 pitches to get through the second. The Sox hit him for three runs in the third to take a 5-2 lead, with Edgar Renteria and Ortiz starting the inning with back-to-back homers.

Ortiz, whose second long ball landed in the center field "black" section, has 13 hits in 27 at-bats in Yankee Stadium this season, a remarkable .481 average.

"That's a guy who doesn't give homers like that every day," Ortiz said of Mussina. "If he gives one, enjoy it."

"He's a very tough hitter, and he has a lot of confidence in this ballpark," Torre said. "You look up there and he's hitting .280. I don't know who's getting him out, but somebody is. We haven't had a lot of success against him."

Mussina was done after three innings and 83 pitches, charged with five runs on seven hits and two walks. It was Mussina's shortest start of the season, and just the second time he allowed five runs in a game.

"You can go for a stretch of four or five games and be pretty effective, and sooner or later, you're going to have a game where it just doesn't work for you," Mussina said. "You're not going to go out there 34 times a year and be at the top of your game. Baseball doesn't happen like that.

"It's unfortunate that today was the day I didn't have anything," he added, "but today was the day."

"He just didn't have the stuff he's had the past five starts," Torre said. "If you don't pitch well, don't pitch to your capabilities, you're playing into their capabilities."

Chien-Ming Wang relieved Mussina, tossing four innings of one-run ball through the seventh, but the offense couldn't bring the Yankees back into the game.

Unlike Mussina, Wells settled in after his rocky first, throwing a total of 19 pitches to sit the Yankees down in the second, third and fourth innings. Once Boston had staked him to a 6-2 lead through four frames, Wells had little trouble mowing through his former team.

"You can't sit around and wait, because he's going to challenge you and throw a lot of strikes," Jeter said. "If you make him throw a lot of pitches, you'll find yourself 0-2 all the time. Our approach was good, we just didn't get too many things going."

Wells eased his way through 8 1/3 innings, throwing 95 pitches while holding the Yanks to three hits after the first inning.

"They have a good hitting team here," Wells said. "Just shut them down and keep the crowd out of it, that was the main thing. ... It's nice to go out there and hold them to two and go deep in the game."

Despite winning just one of three games against their rivals, the Yankees hit the road with a chance to make up some more ground, as Boston and Baltimore play four games against each other at Fenway Park.

"We have to turn things around," Mussina said. "We didn't pitch very well these three days, we didn't hit very well these three days. We have to regroup and get after it again."http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20050529&content_id=1067857& vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

[BuckFoston]

Poor disapointment tonight. We got our butts whooped again. But hey tomorow is amother game. Like Moose said "we will just have to regroup". (Don't bother with the thing that says Red Sox coverage my comp is being gay and wont let me edit)

[love_that_reefer]

Yanks get a nice KC series after a day off.

[nyjunc]

Yanks get a nice KC series after a day off.

yeah, that should hlp us get over the whooping we just took.

[Miss November]

Prepare to be abused, KC. We have a lot of built up fustration we need to take out on somebody. This series was just a disappointment for me. How did we let Wells go 8 innings on us, that's what I need to know. A man who's been struggling for his last x number of starts. Not only should we have won that game, we shoulda lit him up for 5 + runs, but somehow, some way we could only manage 2 in the first inning, to be shut down for the next eight. I tell ya, we better win today...no, we better slaughter KC today. Anything other than a massacre is unacceptable for me.

[Hmark6]

"All of the things that made the last month good, all the weapons I had -- the ability to throw breaking balls for strikes, to throw the fastball in and out -- I didn't have any of that today," Mussina said. "It's tough to pitch against any lineup -- let alone theirs -- without any weapons. I didn't have any today."

That's because the Red Sox have no respect for you, Mike. You had your game, its just not good enough to beat the Sox! They're not fooled by your rainbow knuckle-cruve. They'll sit all over your lame fastball(s) until one ends up under Jason Varitek's chin!

The Sox own Mike Mussina.

Mussina v Red Sox 
W-L     IP     H     R     ER     BB     SO     HR     ERA     BAA
0-2     14     23    14    11     7      9      4      7.07   .377 (23/61)