Detroit Pitchers' Park Actually Helped Mussina Monday night--just missing Grand Slam in 1st IP--NY Times

"Mussina had not allowed a grand slam in more than 12 years before Carlos Guillén connected on Aug. 16 at Yankee Stadium. And Guillén nearly did it again in the first inning Monday.

• With one out, he jumped on a fastball and crushed it to deep center, where the wall is 420 feet from home plate. In most parks, it would have been a grand slam. Here, (Melky) Cabrera turned it into a sacrifice fly with a running, twisting one-handed stab above his head.

That was the only run the Tigers scored in the first, but they scored twice on three hits in the second....

So it went. With two outs, Ryan Raburn read Mussina’s curveball and bounced it up the middle to score Rodríguez. Inge’s double followed, and while Inge did not hit it well,

• Mussina left the pitch high when catcher Jorge Posada called for it low."

From NY Times article by Tyler Kepner, "Ugly Outing by Mussina Casts Cloud on Future," 8/28/07.

• Hey, so Mussina was "lucky" in the first inning.....

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon