While the pitching imports created countless expectations and traces of uncertainty for the Yankees before a hyped season, Mike Mussina was supposed to be their constant. He was supposed to be the starter who did not worry manager Joe Torre, the pitcher who had been here and succeeded before.
Randy Johnson is a future Hall of Famer and will eventually pitch that way, but he is still adjusting to being a Yankee. Carl Pavano has been effective, but he is also adapting to his new team and a new league. Jaret Wright, the third import, is injured. Kevin Brown is an unreliable 40-year-old.
Then there is Mussina -- the pitcher who was thought to have minimal questions surrounding him. When the Yankees analyzed their rotation, they realized that their new starters might begin sluggishly and that Brown could be an enigma. But Mussina was supposed to be consistent. So far, he has been suspect.
The Yankees had some additional stress in their already chaotic world after Mussina was disappointing in a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night. Mussina was bruised for five earned runs and 10 hits, including two-run homers by Garret Anderson and Steve Finley, in an uneven outing at Yankee Stadium.
"It's just frustrating," Mussina said. "You hope for better. You go out there every day expecting better. When you don't get it, it's frustrating."
Mussina had his hands tucked in a gray hooded sweatshirt and he did more staring at the carpet than anything else as he dissected a start he would rather forget. After tumbling to 1-2 with a 4.97 earned run average, Mussina would rather forget all but one of his five starts this season.
Somehow, Torre spoke about Mussina in a glowing manner after the loss, a practice he has needed to adopt too often this season. Torre still searches for positive things to say when a solid pitcher like Mussina sputters, and sometimes he sounds as if he is discussing a rookie instead of a veteran with an US$88.5 million contract.
Torre lamented how the Yankees did not give Mussina help by failing to pounce on Jarrod Washburn, a soft-throwing left-hander who limited them to one run into the eighth. Then Torre described Mussina as having "great stuff," which enabled him to do "pretty much anything he wanted to do."
Of course, that would exclude the fourth inning, when Mussina allowed three runs in a span of eight pitches. The last of those pitches was an inside fastball that Mussina wanted to be up in the strike zone and that Finley lifted over the fence in right field. And that would also exclude the sixth, when Anderson turned a sinker into a souvenir and a 5-1 lead.
"If Moose makes his pitches, he gets them out," Torre said.
While Mussina's velocity was a few miles an hour lower than normal -- the radar readings listed his fastball at around 87mph -- Torre said those figures were erroneous. He said that Mussina was throwing a cut fastball and that was the reason for the decreased velocity. But Mussina admitted that his velocity was off; he said he was "hoping for a little more" on his fastball.
Mussina has surrendered 43 hits in 29 innings. Opponents are batting .361 against him. That basically means the hitters who have faced Mussina have combined to perform like hitters who could win a batting title in most seasons.
"It's a lot," Mussina said. "It bothers me. If you're not pitching well and don't feel as crisp as you want to be, you're going to give up hits."
It surely bothers the Yankees, too, who are slipping and sliding through this month like US$200 million underachievers. Before the game, Torre called Mussina a player with a lot of responsibility for the Yankees who could silence teams once he got rolling.
Right now, Mussina is not close to rolling. He was supposed to be ready, willing and capable, but he was puzzled that he could not throw the ball where he wanted it to go. When Mussina was asked if he was trying to do too much as the incumbent in the rotation with the fewest questions, he smiled and said that was not the reason for his malaise.
A few hours before Mussina fizzled, catcher Jorge Posada was informed that Boston's Curt Schilling had joined David Wells on the disabled list. Posada said he thought those absences "could be tough" for Boston. Wells is 41 and Schilling is 38.
But before the Yankees snicker about the onset of old age for Schilling and Wells, they might want to recall there is a 36-year-old who failed them Wednesday night. The pitcher who was supposed to be a constant has been one after all: a constant question mark.
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