Yankees 6, Mariners 1

Like most high schools, mine played all of it's home football games on Friday nights. During my senior season, we had one away game scheduled for ten-thirty on a Saturday morning, and some of the guys were grumbling about it. Friday nights were special; you played, you showered, and by nine-thirty or ten o'clock you were at one of the local pizza places hanging out until midnight or so.

In our youthful way, we didn't want to give up even a single Friday night. But as we were grumbling in the locker room after post-practice showers, a gravelly voice came out of the equipment locker. "Ahhh, be quiet," it said. "The game was meant to be played in the daytime."

That was our equipment manager, an old guy in his late-sixties who had played and coached before there were lights installed at most fields. None of us in that locker room said anything to contradict him, mostly because he was tougher than any of us were, and also because he was right. We just didn't know that then.

I recall this story here only because I was reminded of it while watching Mike Mussina pitch a whale of a game on Saturday, under the mid-afternoon Bronx sun. There were a few moments in that game when (corny, sentimental atmosphere reference alert!) the pale-blue May sky hung over Yankee Stadium, and it was comforting to see that picture.

Ever since television took over command of American sports, the amount of day games has dwindled to about two per week, and afternoon start times are all but extinct when it comes to the postseason. And the Yankees have had such crappy weather this spring that even their day games have looked drab, even melancholy. Saturday may not have been a totally azure day in New York City, but the few moments of sunshine that came through on the broadcast made the game a little more enjoyable.

Like football, baseball, too, is meant to be played in the daytime.

Another good Moose sighting

You have to hand it Mike Mussina. In the face of brutal criticism after two disastrous outings against the Red Sox, he has responded with some terrific pitching. He's a proud guy and would never admit that Hank Steinbrenner's tirade -- "Mussina should pitch more like Jamie Moyer" -- inspired him to dig deeper, but if Steinbrenner really was no catalyst, then the timing is awfully coincidental. (Actually, Yankee fans probably hope it's coincidental; otherwise Hank will think he really knew what he was talking about, then we're all in for it...)

It would be unrealistic to expect Saturday's performance to become the norm for Mussina -- not just unfair to Mussina, but unfair to most pitchers -- because Mussina was nothing short of brilliant. He opened the game with two perfect innings, gave up a run in the third but got a double play to end a threat, got another double play to end the fourth, stranded two baserunners in the fifth, then saved his best for last, in the sixth.

I don't know if Mussina knew it was going to be his final inning -- I suspect not, since he came into the sixth having thrown only 71 pitches -- but he sure pitched as if he were trying to leave with a flourish. Mariner third baseman Adrian Beltre reached first base on a one-out throwing error by Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, but no matter. Mussina was not in the mood to mind very much if his defense betrayed him slightly.

Moose had already gotten the first out of the inning on a four-pitch, swinging strikeout of Raul Ibanez. With Beltre on first, Mussina went after Seattle designated hitter Jeff Clement and first baseman Richie Sexson. He got Clement to strikeout with a swing and a miss on the third pitch, and took just five pitches to dispatch Sexson in the same manner. As Moose walked off the mound with three swinging strikeouts in his pocket -- something he hadn't done in one inning since the 2005 season -- it was easy to forget that Beltre had even been on base.

Mussina never made it out to the hill in the seventh. Manager Joe Girardi turned the game over to the Yankees' suddenly stellar bullpen. LaTroy Hawkins, Edwar Ramirez, and Jose Veras cleaned up the final three innings, and Mussina went to 4-3 on the season. Watching the game, and knowing Mussina had thrown only 84 pitches, I wanted to see more of him, but that was just a fan's selfishness. I'll take what Mussina gave us today and look forward to his next start in Detroit. where the Yankees will need more of what we saw on Saturday.

It was a Moose sighting. A Moose sighting of the best kind.

Alex who?

Here are the numbers: 10-for-19, a home run, three doubles, five runs scored, five RBIs. That's the stat line laid down by the first four hitters in Saturday's Yankee lineup -- Johnny Damon, Jeter, Bobby Abreu, and Hideki Matsui. With big bangers Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada out of action for a while, Yankee fans have wondered where the team's offense was going to come from. Certainly, there won't be this level of production every game -- especially against ace pitchers like Felix Hernandez, who just didn't have his best stuff on Saturday -- but maybe May was the antidote the Yankees needed for their April offensive woes.

Whatever prompted that outburst yesterday, let's hope it's contagious throughout the clubhouse. Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano are still anchored to the bottom of the American League's list of batting stats, while Morgan Ensberg and Jose Molina are slowly headed in that direction. (Slowly only because neither runs very well, but their numbers are headed south in a big hurry.)

The Yankees will probably need a different guy to be the big bopper each game, because the top four will not bat .526 with four extra-base hits every time out. But even though we know it can't happen every day, it sure as hell was fun to watch on Saturday, and against King Felix, no less!

The king is dead! Long live the.... Yankees!

Season to date

The Yankees are 16-16 and in fourth place in the AL East, three games behind the division-leading Red Sox and one game behind Baltimore and Tampa Bay, both tied for second. The Yankees have won two in a row over the Mariners and are 2-3 in their current nine-game homestand. Sunday's game will be the last with the Mariners in this series. Game time is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. at the Stadium.

Sunday's starting pitchers

Yankees: Darrell Rasner, RHP (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Last start: Rasner was called up to replace Phil Hughes after Hughes was placed on the disabled list last week. This is Rasner's first major league start this season. Last year, he earned a victory over the Mariners at the Stadium on May 6, the day Roger Clemens announced he was returning to the Yankees for one more season. At Class AAA Scranton this season, Rasner started five games and had a 4-0 record with an 0.87 ERA.

Mariners: Carlos Silva, RHP (3-0, 2.79 ERA)
Last start: Silva got a no-decision in Cleveland, giving up two runs on seven hits and striking out three while walking one in seven strong innings. Silva will go deep into games, averaging seven innings in six starts this season.