Timing of Move By Red Sox Is Curious

Ralph Treuel took over as Red Sox pitching coach Monday, a move of curious timing.

The promotion of Boston’s minor league pitching coordinator followed the third consecutive strong performance by a Red Sox starter.

Sunday night David Cone gave up an unearned run in the ninth and the New York Yankees won 1-0 behind Mike Mussina, who lost his bid for a perfect game with two outs in the ninth.

After the game, Red Sox players including Nomar Garciaparra complained about the departure of John Cumberland, Boston’s bullpen coach who was reassigned to its minor-league base in Fort Myers, Fla.

The move came after an outstanding series by Boston’s starters. Frank Castillo, Pedro Martinez and Cone gave up no hits or earned runs in 21 1/3 innings, but Boston lost all three games.

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As the hitless innings piled up and Mussina took a perfect game into the eighth for the third time, the Yankee dugout was quiet. But no one had to remind him about the history of perfect games.

“It actually flashed through my mind: ‘We’re going to go through nine scoreless innings and nobody’s going to score and I’m going to end up with an asterisk job,”’ said Mussina.

In 1959, Harvey Haddix pitched 12 perfect innings for Pittsburgh, but an unearned run in the 13th gave Milwaukee a 1-0 victory.

If the Yankees hadn’t scored, Mussina, probably wouldn’t have returned for the 10th even if his perfect-game bid was intact, Manager Joe Torre said.

Mussina already had struck out 13 of 26 batters and had Carl Everett in a hole. One more strike and Mussina would have a perfect game. Then Everett swung and singled.

Mussina (14-11) watched left fielder Chuck Knoblauch race in and shortstop Derek Jeter rush out. But they never had a chance and the ball dropped, ending his bid for the 15th perfect game in modern history.