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Mussina adjusts and does job for Yankees

Johnette Howard

May 9, 2008

As funny as it seems to say this about a pitcher whose 255 big-league wins give him at least a fighting chance at the Hall of Fame, Mike Mussina was just as big a question mark in the Yankees' rotation at the start of this season as kid starters Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy. The particulars were different, of course. But the basic question all three pitchers have had to face in the past year has been the same:

When you're getting rocked every time out, how do you save yourself from being a guy who has fallen and can't get up?

Baseball players talk all the time about the art of making adjustments. It's essential to survive, they all say. But Kennedy couldn't right himself here, and that's why he's back in the minors after just eight career starts. Hughes, the youngest pitcher in the majors at 21, was off to an abysmal 0-4 start before a busted rib saved him from being demoted to Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre, too.

Mussina, 39, had a stretch late last season that was every bit as horrid as both Hughes and Kennedy endured this year. But the Yankees wouldn't have been in the playoff hunt at all back then if Mussina hadn't righted himself. And they wouldn't be at .500 now if Mussina hadn't given the Yankees four straight effective outings this season, including yesterday's that helped the Yankees bust a three-game losing streak and pull out a 6-3 win over the Indians.

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"He's a different pitcher now than he was back in the day," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "Like most veterans, he finds a way to get you out."

Mussina didn't blow anyone away. Those days are gone. And he only lasted five innings. He had retired 12 in a row and allowed only one hit before he started off the fifth by plunking Ben Francisco in the middle of the back - a loss of control that seemed to come out of nowhere. By the end of the inning, which turned into a 35-pitch marathon, Mussina had given back the three-run lead the Yankees had just given him. But he got the win anyway when the Yanks rebounded with a run in the bottom of the fifth.

Mussina wins with sleight of hand now. Everything about his game is a delicate balance. As he said yesterday, he's had to find a way to win without having great stuff anymore. Being able to walk that tightrope this season is what has distinguished him from Kennedy or Hughes. He says all of the adjustments he's made are very nuanced - things like changing his pitch sequences, using both sides of the plate more, throwing more strikes instead of nibbling.

"And just playing with more confidence - that's big," Mussina added.

Someone told him that he looked in his mid-20s for a while there yesterday, and Mussina smiled and said, "Ahh ... maybe more like 35, 34."

Then he went on to thank everyone but the team laundry man for pulling out the game - Robinson Cano for the home run and double; Jason Giambi for the booming two-run homer he smacked. Mussina raved about the two scoreless innings that Ross Ohlendorf threw after him. Then he almost laughed out loud when someone diplomatically asked him about the "change of pace" Ohlendorf's 95-mph fastball was for the Indians.

"If you're coming in after me," Mussina smirked, "most of the guys out there are a 'change of pace.' "

Fair enough. But even for a pitcher with Mussina's resourcefulness, it wasn't a given that he'd bounce back from last season's misery. Not with his fastball struggling to top 85 mph, and not at his age.

Mussina was so bad that he even questioned if he'd ever succeed again.

Asked yesterday if that worry is always present, Mussina shot back, "Always."

He added it doesn't matter if you're a slumping hitter or a pitcher. Doesn't matter if you've been around forever as he has or you're a hotshot young prospect like Hughes and Kennedy.

"Look, those two are -

what? - 21 and 23, with minimal major-league experience?" Mussina said. "It's inevitable there's going to be rough patches. There's so much to learn at this level. I mean, I'm still learning."

The difference is Mussina found something - and on the fly. What he's given the Yankees this year is some much-needed peace of mind. He's been an absolute godsend who has helped the Yankees to .500 though two-fifths of their starting rotation haven't panned out, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada are on the disabled list, and Cano and Giambi still are battling to get their averages above .200.

It hasn't been easy, but you know what they say.

"You adjust," Mussina said.

Or else.