Moose hunting for answers to problems

NEW YORK -- The Moose is a mess.

He knows it. The Yankees know it. If ever the Yankees needed Roger Clemens, it's now.

Mike Mussina, 38, is one of the veteran pitchers the Yankees need to come up big, but in his last two starts -- including last night's 7-3 loss to the Red Sox -- he has been a big disappointment.

On a night when the Yankees could have won their third straight, Mussina gave up seven runs on 10 hits, including a three-run homer by Manny Ramírez in the first inning. And they are 10 1/2 games behind the Sox again.

"It's almost June, and I don't feel like I've done anything as far as contributing up to this point," lamented Mussina, who has 241 career wins. "We've played two months and we haven't played well and I'm part of that because I haven't done very well."

Mussina, 2-3 with a bulging 6.52 ERA, doesn't know what to think.

He's already spent time on the disabled list with a hamstring strain that cost him two weeks in April. His right shoulder has gone in and out, his velocity up and down. Last night, he said, he threw a few pitches 90-91 miles per hour and then dropped into the mid- to high 80s the rest of the way.

Because of injuries, rainouts, and offdays, Mussina hasn't been on a regular five-day rotation. In fact, in his last three starts, he's been on six days' rest. For a creature of habit, that's not good, but he knows that with Clemens returning, and the Yankees wanting Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte to stay on schedule, he may be the one affected if there are more glitches.

"It's been like that the whole season, so either I get used to it or I make some kind of adjustment," Mussina said. "You're at the mercy of the schedule, the way things play out.

"I don't like getting out of a routine any more than anybody else does. But you have to deal with it. I've had to deal with it and I've had to deal with it a lot. And I haven't done a very good job with it."

Asked whether he'd ever march into Joe Torre's office and ask for stability in his schedule, he said, "I don't have that luxury. I pitch whenever I get the chance. It's not my place to request things like that. I'm here to do a job when I'm told to do it."

His erratic performance is really bothering him. He knows as a veteran, he needs to stabilize the staff, not create more chaos.

"One day it's good and one day it's bad," Mussina said. "I threw a couple of balls in the first inning with life and I thought I felt good. I think I hit 90-91 a couple of times.

"I felt good throwing the ball the first inning. A single to right. A single to left. Home run. Double to right. [Jason] Varitek hooked a curveball [single to right]. If they're going to hit the ball to the opposite field, I've got to give it to them. When I get into bad counts is when I get in trouble with the doubles and the homers."

Correcting it is Mussina's mission. How he does that is another question.

"It's not that I don't know how, it's just that it's never that easy," he said. "You have to keep working on it. I can't get on the mound every day. It's not like getting out of a batting slump and doing batting practice and batting drills and stuff like that."

Mussina said he had no idea how Mike Lowell kept the ball fair down the left-field line for a home run in the fourth, but he knows he really messed up in the seventh when he allowed three runs. Instead of 4-2, it became 7-2. A questionable call on a Coco Crisp steal that ignited the rally seemed to unravel Mussina for good.

The biggest problem, he thought, was falling behind in the count. That's not him. He's made his living by keeping hitters off balance and pitching ahead in the count.

"It comes and goes," he said. "It's been there. I've had stretches where I don't know where the ball is going."

When asked about last year, when things were going well at this point, he said, "A year ago? Every year is different. Can't look back and say what was I doing last year. Last year I knew where the ball was going. Nothing this year has been very consistent."

Last Wednesday against the White Sox, Mussina allowed eight hits and five runs in 5 1/3 innings as the Yankees lost, 5-3. In the two starts before that, he allowed just one and two earned runs in five- and six-inning stints.

"I thought my arm had some life those two games," he said. "I haven't felt like it had the same life the last two. I had better command of the baseball those two. I was simply in better counts those two games. You get into bad counts against good teams, good hitters, you're going to get beat more often than not."

He understands the clock is ticking. On him. On his team. There was urgency in his voice to turn it around.

"You've got to get it out of your head first," he reasoned. "How bad it is or how frustrated you are, it doesn't matter. I'll pick up the baseball tomorrow and do what I can with it and go from there.

"I'll sit down and talk to Gator [pitching coach Ron Guidry]. I'll sit down and watch some video and do the things that you do when it doesn't feel right and keep working toward something better."

He will hear the whispers about his age but he will not give in.

"It has nothing to do with age," Mussina said. "Nothing at all."

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.