As detroit yankee alluded in his long but excellent fan post, I made a Bold Prediction about Mike Mussina: 180IP, 150K, 1.25 WHIP.

Through 15 starts, Mussina has thrown 81.1IP, 46K, 1.218 WHIP, which projects out to 173.1IP, 98K, 1.22 WHIP over 32 starts.

And he's collected win 260 of his Hall of Fame career.  

Yeah, I said it.

Do you realize that at this point Mussina is a lock for the All-Star team?  I'd rank him third for the start behind Doc Halladay and Cliff Lee.  That the game is in New York could easily put him over the top.

Especially encouraging (for those who will choose to remember it) is that Moose recovered from his early "Meltdown" to hold down the Astros over his final five innings.  He pitched around a Jeter error in the 4th, and was helped in the first and the sixth by caught stealings.

Moose threw his fastball, spitter, slider, and both curves (the slower one with a 15" break and the fast one with a 10" break).

A 3 game win streak, 4 of the last 5, 7 of 10; and don't look now, but the Yankees are in third place in the East, trailing the Sawx and the Rays by 5 games in the loss column.  They're a season high 3 games over .500, and credit for that goes to the re-energized rotation.

With Moose pitching as well as ever, with Wang looking better having returned primarily to his sinker, with Pettitte finally looking like himself, with Joba ready to roll, and with Rasner a more than adequate fifth starter, the Yankees are prepared for a run.

Tomorrow they can prove me right in a rare get-away day game against Roy Oswalt.  I'm anxious to see if Wang stays with the sinker, or goes back to his modified 2008 approach.