Mussina Sticks It Out to Win 100 for Yanks

Yankees 11, Indians 2

CLEVELAND, Aug. 11 — Mike Mussina stared up at a television set in the visitors clubhouse last week in Toronto. The highlights of a Mets loss were showing.

“What's their record?” Mussina asked a bystander, who told him. Mussina paused. “And what's our record?” Given the answer, Mussina smiled, nodded his head and walked away.

bystander n. 旁觀者

The Yankees' rivalry with the Mets is always a background issue in New York, and Mussina has played there long enough to know that. He has also been with the Yankees long enough to collect 100 victories, which he reached in the Yankees' 11-2 victory against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday at Jacobs Field.

rivalry n. 競爭，對抗

At 65-51, the Yankees' record is one game better than the Mets'. In the standings that matter, the Yankees remained in a virtual tie with the Seattle Mariners for the lead in the American League wild-card standings. They also stayed five games behind Boston in the A.L. East.

“It's a good feeling, but it's a controlled feeling,” said Alex Rodriguez, who homered twice and drove in four runs. “We realize we have a lot of work ahead and we haven't accomplished anything yet.”

Mussina, however, accomplished something notable. He became the ninth pitcher to earn at least 100 victories for two teams, a list that includes five Hall of Famers; two other active pitchers, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux; and Dennis Martínez.

Only Lefty Grove and Mussina have won 100 with two A.L. teams, and Mussina became the 16th pitcher with at least 100 victories as a Yankee.

“It's exciting,” said Mussina, who won his fourth start in a row. “I'm glad I've had a chance to come here and pitch well enough and pitch long enough to accomplish it. It's pretty cool, I guess. I probably won't make it to 200, so I'd better savor 100. But I hope I win a few more here before I decide to stop.”

Mussina won 147 games for the Baltimore Orioles from 1991 through 2000. He is in the first season of his second contract with the Yankees, with a record of 100-60. He is tied with Jack Quinn for 45th on the career victories list, with 247.

Mussina (8-7) matched a season high Saturday, pitching seven and two-thirds innings. He allowed two earned runs and eight hits with no walks and six strikeouts. He has not walked a hitter in his last 22 innings.

“I think he feels better about his stuff,” Manager Joe Torre said. “He's a little freer throwing in the strike zone, and he's using both sides of the plate better. He wasn't really coming in, so he probably wasn't feeling good about his stuff. But one sort of leads to the other.”

Mussina, 38, said he learned from watching the 21-year-old Phil Hughes face the Indians on Friday. Hughes throws much harder than Mussina does, but both throw curveballs and changeups. The Indians are a fastball-hitting team, Mussina said, and watching Hughes dominate them with off-speed pitches encouraged him to do the same.

Mussina allowed three earned runs or fewer in 11 of his last 12 starts. He said he had more options now when deciding which pitch to throw.

“It's hard to pitch when you don't have access to certain parts of the plate or certain pitches,” Mussina said. “The last couple of weeks, I felt like I've had command and most of my pitches going.”

After giving up a run in the first inning, Mussina pitched with a lead the rest of the way. The Yankees scored seven runs in the second inning to overwhelm Paul Byrd, who had thrown a shutout in his previous start.

The Yankees were ahead, 3-1, with two outs before Bobby Abreu stroked an 0-2 pitch to left for a two-run single. That brought up Rodriguez, who hit the first of his two-run homers and made the score 7-1. Rodriguez leads the majors with 39 homers and 114 runs batted in, and he is relaxed again after hitting his 500th home run a week ago.

“It's good to get that 500 number out of the way and just get back to playing real baseball,” he said.

Rodriguez had company in the offensive parade. José Molina set a career high with four hits, and Derek Jeter had three hits for the second game in a row.

The Yankees are batting .329 since the All-Star Game break and averaging 7.7 runs a game. They have won 10 of their last 11 series and are the hottest team in baseball.

“We knew coming into this stretch that we had to play well,” Mussina said. “The pitching staff has been the lucky recipients of our offense putting up a lot of runs, so we don't feel like every pitch is the game. Even against the better pitchers, we’re putting good at-bats on people and making it tough on them.”

recipient n. 接受者