A Classic Pitchers' Duel--Peter

Well, the third game of this four game set at Yankee Stadium turned into a classic pitchers' duel. Note the location of the apostrophe. Before pitch counts and setup men followed by closers, a pitcher went as far as he could, and if it was a tight low scoring game, it became a real pitcher's duel--each against the other starter. Often, you'd end up with a 1-0 or 2-1 final, sometimes even over into extra innings.

This game had Sox rookie Masterson going against Mussina. Mussina, as good a pitcher as he is, has never won a Cy, nor had a 20 game season, AND the Sox,more often than not, have really taken him to the cleaners. Not yesterday!

Scoring early and later, the Yanks had a two zip lead going into the 9th. Both teams were finding hits difficult to come by. In fact, with a total of seven hit batsmen between the two teams, a major league record was tied. To the 9th, Stripes had 6 hits and the Sox 5.

Mariano Riviera in to pitch. Very quickly, not to mention uncharacteristically, he quickly loaded the bases with a combination of a hit, a walk and the 7th hit batsman of the game. In fact, by hitting Manny, he tied another record. It was the third time Manny'd been hit in the game. However, he again became himself and struck out the next batter, got the next in a popup, and finished out with a K of Lugo. Game over.

So, the Sox are now just five up on the Stripes, and, more important for now, FOUR behind the Rays, who won again.