A Matchup the Yanks Can't Seem to Win

Tigers 8, Yankees 5

The matchup was the same last Oct. 5, when the Detroit Tigers last played in New York. Mike Mussina faced Justin Verlander and the Yankees grabbed an early lead. Then the shadows took over and the lights went out.

The Tigers did not lose again until the World Series. Yankees Manager Joe Torre nearly lost his job. Now, after the Tigers’ 8-5 victory at Yankee Stadium last night, the teams have the same record. But it was the Yankees who fell out of the lead for a playoff spot with their third loss in a row.

“We were going really well there for a long time, and in the last three days, we've kind of made that disappear in a hurry,” starter Mike Mussina said. “We've got to get it straightened back out again or all the work we just accomplished the last month or so will wind up being a waste.”

or so adv. approximately
wind up 結果

The Yankees (67-54) fell to a half-game behind the idle Seattle Mariners in the American League wild-card standings. Verlander lasted only five and a third innings, but that was one out longer than Mussina, who gave up six earned runs and nine hits.

In their last three games, the Yankees have scored only eight runs. They struck out 11 times last night, and their status as the hottest team in the majors has gone away.

“We went through a streak where everything we did went well for us,” Manager Joe Torre said. “And you have to understand, it works the other way, too.”

The Yankees had won 30 of 42 games before last night, but there was a common theme in some of their losses: the opposing starter was among the elite. Johan Santana, John Lackey, Scott Kazmir, Roy Halladay and Érik Bédard all helped their teams beat the Yankees.

For all of their bruising offense, then, the Yankees still needed to prove they could handle better pitchers. They were frustrated last night despite their sound approach to Verlander.

bruising a. 十分激烈的，殊死的

In Verlander's first time through the order, every hitter took the first pitch. He needed 30 pitches to wade through the first inning, and his pitch count soared to 119.

wade through v. 費力地做完
soar v. 猛增，暴漲

“We had him on the ropes a couple of times, but we couldn't get that big hit,” Derek Jeter said. “We had a lot of hits sprinkled in here and there, but that’s pretty much all we could get going. That's what the good pitchers do — they bear down when they get in trouble and avoid the big innings.”

sprinkle v. 灑，撒

Mussina could not do that. He had won his last four starts and allowed three earned runs or fewer in 11 of his past 12. But this game turned ugly early, and when it did, Mussina could not restore order.

With one out and one on in the first, the former Yankee Gary Sheffield — who was booed each time up — bounced a ball to the left of third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Fielded cleanly, it might have been an inning-ending double play.

“I think so,” Rodriguez said. “Bang-bang, Sheff runs well, but that’s a play I need to make. You feel bad for Moose. If I make that play, maybe he goes out and pitches a gem.”

Mussina did not blame Rodriguez, though, and he did not question a borderline call on an outside pitch to Carlos Guillén with a 1-2 count and the bases loaded. Guillén followed with a foul ball and then a grand slam off a high changeup.

Mussina called his performance unacceptable and said his pitches were a ball-width or two away from where he wanted them to be.

“I pitched poorly from the beginning, and we never really had a chance to get back in the game,” Mussina said. “You can't win doing that. My job is to pitch better than that, and I just didn't do it.”

The Yankees got a run back in the first, but singles by Brandon Inge and Magglio Ordóñez made the score 6-1 in the second.

Bobby Abreu's two-run homer in the third — clubbed over the wall in straightaway center — did not shift the momentum. Torre's decision to pinch hit Shelley Duncan for Johnny Damon in the sixth inning for the second time this week did not work, either.

The Yankees were trailing by four with two out, and Torre said he envisioned another three-run home run like Duncan hit on Wednesday. But Duncan struck out on a 95-mile-an-hour fastball from Zach Miner.

Miner struck out the side in the seventh, and after Fernando Rodney did the same in the eighth, the last eight Yankees outs had been on strikeouts.

Though they rallied for two in the ninth, the Yankees' hitters had looked feeble against the Tigers.

feeble a. 虛弱的

In 10 months, it seemed, nothing had changed.