Moose Calls Return to the Stadium

Mike Mussina has been hearing more boos than calls of "Moose" over the past 2 seasons, but the boo birds were in hiding today as Moose mastered the Seattle Mariners 6-1.

One night after Chien-Ming Wang dominated the M's, Mussina did the same on Saturday afternoon. He pitched a relatively unscathed 6 innings, allowing a run on 7 hits, and recorded 5 strikeouts, including K'ing the side in his final inning of work. More importantly he didn't walk a batter.

For the second straight game, the Yankees struck first, taking a 1-0 lead in the first on a lead off double by Johnny Damon and an RBI single by Bobby Abreu. Ichiro Suzuki singled in the tying run in the top of the 3rd, but the Yankees took control in their half of the inning against Mariners starter Felix Hernandez.

Damon stroked his second double, the 400th of his career with one out, and came home on Derek Jeter's historic double for a 2-1 lead. Hernandez retired Abreu for the 2nd out, but Hideki Matsui slapped a fastball over the 3rd Base bag for an RBI single. Matsui advanced to 2nd Base on the play when left fielder Raul Ibanez's throw slipped from his hand and went sideways. The Yankees took advantage of the miscue two batters later when Melky Cabrera lined an RBI single to center for a 4-1 lead.

The Yankees got to Hernandez one more time in the 6th when Molina snapped an 0-23 skid with a single and came around on Damon's 4th home run of the year.

Meanwhile, Mussina threw his pitches where he wanted, and unlike the Mariners in this series, the Yankees, for the most part, backed him up with solid defense. Mussina induced double play balls to thwart rallies in both the 3rd and 4th innings. But his big moment came in the 6th.

Mussina struck out Raul Ibanez swinging. After Adrian Beltre reached on Morgan Ensberg's error, Mussina struck out both rookie Jeff Clement and veteran Richie Sexson swinging to finish his day with a bang.

LaTroy Hawkins, Edwar Ramirez, and recently recalled Jose Veras each worked one scoreless inning to preserve the win.

News and Notes

Mike Mussina's win was his 3rd straight and number 254 for his career, putting him in a tie for 39th place on the all-time wins list with Jack Morris and Red Faber. Mussina struck out Sexson with an 89 mph fastball.

“I cut it loose!” Mussina said with a chuckle. “I know the ball’s not going to come out of my hand going 93 ever again. So I’ve got to go with what I have, and so far it’s been OK.” (- Mike Fitzpatrick, AP Baseball Writer)

Both Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter had 3 hits to raise their averages to .290.

Ichiro Suzkuki stole his 11th base of the season and 4th in 2 games. With Yuniesky Betancourt's theft, the Mariners are 5-5 in the series.

The slumps continue- both Robinson Cano (.150) and Jason Giambi (.154) were 0-3.

Hideki Matsui was 2-5 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.

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