September 3, 2001
YANKEES 1, RED SOX 0
Mussina Misses Perfect Game by One Pitch
By BUSTER OLNEY
BOSTON, Sept. 2 - Mike Mussina retired the first 26 Red Sox batters tonight and he needed one strike to join the lineage of Yankees pitchers - all strangely connected - who had thrown perfect games.
Boston's Carl Everett was batting with a 1-2 count. One more strike, that was all Mussina needed to follow Don Larsen, who threw the first Yankees' perfect game in the 1956, and David Wells, who attended the same San Diego high school as Larsen and threw a perfect game in 1998. One more strike to follow David Cone, who tossed a no-hitter on the afternoon in 1999 that Larsen threw out the first ball on Yogi Berra Day - and incredibly, Cone was the pitcher matched against Mussina tonight.
Cone shut out the Yankees into the ninth before allowing a run, and now Mussina needed one more strike. He threw a fastball, high and outside the strike zone. Everett made contact and Mussina turned and followed the path of the ball, his shoulders sagging.
Everett's looping line drive fell in front of left fielder Chuck Knoblauch, a clean hit, and even though Mussina rebuilt his emotions and retired the last hitter to close the Yankees' 1-0 victory and sweep of the Red Sox, he was disheartened. One strike too few. "I'm going to think about it," he said later, "until I retire."
And beyond, in all likelihood. Mussina had come close to throwing no-hitters and perfect games when he pitched for the Baltimore Orioles, retiring the first 25 Cleveland Indians on May 30, 1997, before Sandy Alomar singled with one out in the ninth inning, cutting down the first 23 Detroit Tigers on Aug. 4, 1998, before Frank Catalanotto doubled.
Mussina said he learned from those experiences that he could never believe he might throw a perfect game until the 27th out was recorded - no hits, no walks, no errors - but when first baseman Clay Bellinger made a diving stop in the ninth inning tonight, Mussina was certain he would finish this masterpiece. "I thought, `Maybe this time it's going to happen,' " Mussina said.
One more strike. "Part of me didn't want him to do it, because I was the last to do it," Cone said. "But part of me wanted him to do it."
Bellinger said the outcome felt like a loss, because Mussina had come so close to a no-hitter, but then he and other Yankees marveled about how good Mussina had been, how tough Cone was, how remarkable the whole game felt. "One of the best games I've ever played in," Bernie Williams said.
The anxiety rose from the outset, the Yankees failing to score against Cone repeatedly, Mussina breezing through the Red Sox' lineup. The pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre watched Mussina warm up in the bullpen before the game and was taken aback by the sharp angles at which his curveball was breaking - "straight down," Stottlemyre said. Just as Wells's did on the day of his perfect game.
Mussina needed only 70 pitches to get through the first six innings, and by then he had accumulated 11 strikeouts and the idea of a no-hitter was beginning to infiltrate his thoughts, the fans sitting in the stands and Mussina's teammates.
Yankees Manager Joe Torre watched and the thought occurred to him that he had never seen a pitcher dominate a team with such ease.
But the Yankees could not break through against Cone, collecting only two hits in the first six innings, missing a chance to score in the seventh. There were two on and two out and the rookie pinch-hitter Nick Johnson struck out, flailing at a split-fingered fastball.
Mussina removed the towel from around his shoulders, pulled off his jacket and retired the Red Sox in order in the bottom of the seventh. He returned to the dugout and nobody was saying anything to him, "the universal superstition," David Justice said.
The Yankees got a couple of runners on in the top of the eighth, before Williams slammed a high drive to straightaway center field, where Trot Nixon twisted and turned and charged back to the warning track. Then settled under the ball for the out. Williams slammed his helmet in frustration, and Mussina had a morose thought - he might wind up with one of those asterisk no- hitters, where he doesn't allow any hits and gets a no-decision when the game is decided in extra innings.
Mussina cleared his head. Manny Ramirez flied out to left, the 22nd out. Dante Bichette flied to relatively deep center field, only the third ball hit out of the infield by Boston. Brian Daubach took a called third strike, the fifth consecutive inning ended with a Red Sox hitter staring at a strike. Cone came out to pitch the ninth, Red Sox fans roaring. Tino Martinez singled to lead off the ninth inning. With one out, Paul O'Neill laced a hard grounder at second baseman Lou Merloni, a double-play ball if he had fielded it - but the grounder skipped off Merloni and rolled into right-center field, Martinez rambling around second and taking third, the first base runner in this game to do so.
Bellinger was inserted as a pinch-runner, and Boston Manager Joe Kerrigan elected to stick with Cone after visiting the mound. Enrique Wilson, the utility infielder acquired in a midseason trade with Pittsburgh, slammed a grounder toward first, down the line. Daubach dived, the ball bounded over his glove, and most of the crowd wailed collectively. Bellinger scored the run that Mussina needed for the decision.
Cone was replaced, responding to a standing ovation, and he returned to the Boston dugout, where he stayed to watch the bottom of the ninth, to watch Mussina.
Mussina stands upright on the mound, hands at his side, and he will look at the ground momentarily, deciding in that instant what pitch he wants to throw next. Then Mussina will look into the catcher for the sign.
Shea Hillenbrand led off the bottom of the ninth for the Red Sox and he slashed a grounder toward first; base hit, Mussina thought. But Bellinger dived to his right, speared the ball, rose and flipped to Mussina covering, a would-be hit that had been turned into an out. Yankees catcher Jorge Posada saw this and flashed back to the day he caught Wells's no-hitter; this would be Posada's second perfect game, he thought.
Mussina was still throwing hard, filled with adrenaline. He struck out Merloni, flashbulbs popping from all parts of Fenway Park. Two outs. One out to go.
Everett was announced as a pinch-hitter for Joe Oliver and fell behind, no balls and two strikes, took a ball high. Mussina struck out Everett four times in a game at Yankee Stadium this season by getting ahead in the count and then pumping high fastballs past Everett. Now with the count 1-2, Mussina looked down at the ground, made his decision, looked for the sign.
Mussina threw a high fastball, Everett swung, the ball fell in left-center. Posada walked to the mound, unsure of what to say. "What could I say to him?" Posada asked later.
They talked about concentrating on the next hitter, disappointment filling Mussina's face as he talked, the bags under his eyes seemingly deepening. Nixon grounded out to second baseman Alfonso Soriano, ending the game, and teammates muttered congratulations to Mussina. "It was supposed to happen," Torre said.
One more out. One more strike.
Mussina Misses Perfect Game by One Pitch - Bericht NY Times
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Der is für Mussina.
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