For Starters, Yankees Aren’t Doing the Job

From the muscle tightness that prompted Mike Mussina to leave Game 3 of the division series with the Angels after only four innings, to the pain being inflicted by Anaheim hitters, that “best pitching staff” in Joe Torre’s seven years as the New York Yankee manager is on its back, hurting in more ways than one.

“They’re taking it to us pretty good,” General Manager Brian Cashman said after another improbable pounding in which the Angels rallied from a 6-1 deficit for a 9-6 victory that may have left his Yankees beyond emergency care.

They must win today to send the series back to New York for a decisive fifth game Sunday, but their vaunted pitchers have given no indication they can impede that relentless Angel offense, which responded to the beat of an Edison Field crowd of 45,072 with 12 more hits, bringing their three-game totals to 41 hits and 22 runs.

“To say I’m surprised would be disrespectful to the Angels,” Cashman said. “I think what’s happening is a combination of us not pitching to our capability and the Angels having an extremely volatile offense. I want to be careful not to take anything away from them because they’re forcing the action, making things happen. We have to make better pitches, but in some cases they’re hitting good pitches.”

For the record, the Angels are now hitting .369 and have scored in 15 of the 26 innings in which they have batted. The Yankees, who ranked fourth in the American League with a 3.87 earned-run average, have a 7.62 ERA for the three games with the Angels.

On Thursday’s off day, Andy Pettitte, who had lasted only three innings as New York’s Game 2 starter, had tried to come to grips with his staff’s inability to put the Angels away and said, “I still think we’re better than they are, starting pitching-wise, and I think we’re due.”

Due? Pettitte is still waiting.

The Yankees built that 6-1 lead at the expense of Ramon Ortiz, who lasted only 2 2/3 innings, but by the time Mussina left with a groin strain in his right leg, it was 6-4, and the Angels didn’t let up against Jeff Weaver, Mike Stanton and Steve Karsay, three renowned baseball names working out of the Yankee bullpen and outpitched on this October night by rookies John Lackey and Francisco Rodriguez and a left-hander, Scott Schoeneweis, who is in his first half-season of relief assignments.

In Cashman’s words, Lackey, Schoeneweis and Rodriguez “stabilized the early bleeding” and enabled the Angels to reap the benefits of their rally, ultimately joining with closer Troy Percival to limit the Yankees to one hit over the last six innings.

By comparison, the Angels scored five runs off Weaver, Stanton and Karsay in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, with the decisive three coming in the eighth as Adam Kennedy and Darin Erstad doubled, and Tim Salmon homered.

“We knew they had a tough lineup,” Stanton said. “We knew they didn’t strike out a lot and didn’t walk a lot. We knew they worked the count and put the bat on the ball, and they did it tonight on what I thought were some quality pitches I made.”

If so, the Angels trashed the quality, saddling the left-hander with four hits and three runs in 1 2/3 innings--and the loss.

Of course, Yankee relievers are suddenly working overtime because none of the celebrated starters have gotten past the sixth inning.

Roger Clemens went 5 2/3 innings in Game 1 and Pettitte went his three before Mussina limped out after four. The Angels have forced the three starters to deliver 249 pitches in 12 2/3 innings and they have collected 22 hits and scored 12 runs in that span.

Mussina had leads of 3-0 and 6-1 before he left with the score, 6-4, and Torre made no excuse for his starter.

“It wasn’t the groin that gave up the runs,” he said.

“He was OK at that point.”

There is nothing OK with the Yankee pitching, however, and Torre said, “It’s definitely capable of doing a better job, but I don’t want to say we’re totally to blame here. I think you have to credit the Angels.

“They’re good. We knew they were good coming in, and right now they’re playing with a great deal of confidence, they’re playing very aggressively.

“Right now, we just haven’t been able to do our job as well as they have.”

If that doesn’t change today, the Yankees will be forced to pack their wounded pride and $135-million payroll and head back to the Bronx without the accompaniment of the Angels.

It will be up to David Wells to heal those wounds.

Wells was 19-7 this year and has an 8-1 postseason record in 19 games. He also has a 16-10 record against the Angels. However, he is 6-6 with a 6.89 ERA at Edison Field, where the Angels really don’t need the Rally Monkey the way the Yankees are pitching.