The Blue Jays ended the Yankees’ quest for a perfect season last night at Yankee Stadium with a 5-2 win. Toronto dominated the contest behind A.J. Burnett, who dominated for 6+ innings aside from an Alex Rodriguez homer. Burnett has as much talent as anybody in the game. There is no shame in him shutting down an offense. The effort of New York’s starting pitcher is a significantly bigger concern.
Mike Mussina was roughed up for 4 runs on 8 hits over just 5.2 innings. Normally one could simply write this off as one bad start early in the year, but Moose showed some disconcerting red flags. Mike lost a lot of velocity on his fastball last season, consistently topping out in the mid 80’s. After taking a vacation in late August and early September, he started hitting the upper 80’s and even touched 90 on occasion. Not so coincidently, his results were much better late in the year. It seemed at that point as if a hamstring injury sustained early in 2007 had lingered until he had adequate time to rest it. Considering this, an offseason of rest appeared to be just what the doctor ordered to make Mussina a viable starter in 2008.
In this game he came out and threw in the mid 80’s once again. Mike is going to get killed in the AL East if his velocity does not increase. He is not going to be able to consistently miss bats. One might claim that most of Toronto’s hits were soft bloops, but the Jays were able to put enough wood on those balls because Mike had nothing on his fastball. Perhaps he will start throwing harder once the cold relents, but many assumed that would happen last year, and it did not occur until September. In a division with hitting like this, Mussina will need pinpoint control to be successful throwing so softly. Considering how much youth is in the rotation, this team is going to have big problems if Moose is not a veteran anchor.
Some losses are bigger than others because they display a glaring weakness. The Yankees might have experienced one of those in the second game of the season. Mike Mussina’s performances in the near future bear watching. His stuff is going to need to significantly improve, or this team will have a problem.
