Pirates shelled in return to Yankee Stadium
NEW YORK (AP) – Back at Yankee Stadium and playing under the glowering eye of their impatient owner, Mike Mussina and the New York Yankees looked every bit the dominant team they are expected to be. Mussina pitched a five-hitter, Hideki Matsui homered, and the Yankees beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-0 in the teams’ first meeting since the memorable 1960 World Series.
With George Steinbrenner watching from his private box, the Yankees put on a performance worthy of their $205 million payroll – nearly $168 million more than the Pirates – and one much crisper than their just-completed 3-9 road trip that manager Joe Torre called “terrible.”
Converted second baseman Tony Womack made a diving catch in left field; center fielder Bernie Williams and second baseman Robinson Cano executed a perfect relay to Jorge Posada to get Matt Lawton trying to score in the sixth inning; and beleaguered fading star Jason Giambi turned jeers to cheers with a two-run double.
The last pitch between these teams resulted in one of the most well-known home runs in baseball history – and certainly the most dramatic: In the 1960 World Series, Bill Mazeroski homered leading off the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 to give Pittsburgh an improbable Series win. It’s still the only Game 7 World Series-winning homer.
Tuesday’s game set off on a memorable course, too.
Mussina (7-4) retired the first 14 batters before Daryle Ward hit a grounder off first base that first baseman Giambi didn’t even make a play for, think it was going foul.
To repeated calls of “Moose!” from the crowd of 44, 541, Mussina easily handled a nervous-looking young Pirates squad.
Mussina struck out six while walking one, and needed 109 pitches – 76 strikes – for his 23rd complete-game shutout and second this year.
Matsui was the designated hitter because he injured his right ankle Sunday and Torre was tentative to start him, but the Japanese star homered on the first pitch he saw from Kip Wells (5-5) in the second inning.
New York added a run in the third on second baseman Jose Castillo’s throwing error and another in the fourth on Posada’s RBI single, with Matsui scoring his second run to make it 3-0.
Gary Sheffield and Posada had run-scoring singles in the four-run fifth before Giambi hit a drive just out of the reach of Pirates center fielder Rob Mackowiak’s outstretched glove and off the wall.
Ruben Sierra, who replaced Matsui in the sixth inning, had a two-run single in the eighth after the Yankees loaded the bases on two walks and Alex Rodriguez’s second hit by pitch.
Wells allowed seven runs – six earned – and eight hits in 4 2-3 innings.
Notes: Several Pirates players were given random drug tests before the game. … Mussina’s last complete game came May 7 against Oakland, a 5-0 victory. He has 56 career complete games. … It’s been 18 games since the Pirates lost two straight from May 24-25.