The hard-luck starter mantle has passed from Mike Mussina to Ted Lilly. Last year it was Mussina who was continually pitching close games and losing with no run support. And let's not forget that Memorial Day Weekend game at Fenway, two strikes from a perfect game before it was broken up--though at least Moose won that game. This year, it looks like Lilly's the guy the Yankees can't put runs up for, and on the youngster it looks even more painful.

Tonight Ted Lilly had his second start of the season, filling in for Andy Pettitte, who is on the disabled list with a sore elbow. Lilly is a young lefthander who last year struggled with control problems from time to time but who showed he had a tough spirit, who could bear down from time to time and get the big outs when he really needed them. Charlie Steiner described the smallish lefty as "cute, in old time baseball parlance."

Cute was not the word the Blue Jays used one week ago, as they found themselves waving weakly at Lilly's confusing array of speed-changes on his fastball, curve ball, and changeup. Down by one, thanks to a bernie Williams homer in the first, the Jays were held scoreless through six and two-thirds innings, as Lilly recorded nine strikeouts, walked only one, and gave up only two hits. The heartbreaker in that game came on the third batter of the seventh, who would have been Lilly's last man. Backup catcher Tom Wilson smashed a home run into the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium. Lilly shouted "no!" as the ball left the bat--he knew he had just made the one mistake he couldn't afford to make, losing his chance at a decision in the game. (Things got worse from there, as the Yankees ended up losing the game 5-4 in the tenth.) Last year, in twenty starts, he had never once taken a game through the seventh, and last week had been his first try.

In Seattle, the stakes were higher. Lilly carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning. The only man who had been on was Jeff Cirillo, who had been on twice, both times from being hit by Lilly pitches. In the eighth it all unraveled on Lilly again, this time though, the Yankees had not scored even a single run for him (they missed some opportunities, wasting a triple from Soriano in the 6th, a leadoff double from VanderWal in the eighth). Lilly opened the inning by striking out Carols Guillen looking, but then fell behind Dan Wilson 3-0. He walked him on five pitches. Wilson came out for a pinch runner, Luis Ugueto, and Desi Relaford came to the plate. As Relaford's at bat dragged on to 2-2, Steve Karsay got up in the bullpen.

Perhaps it was Karsay's action that broke the spell for Lilly, or perhaps it was just the young lefty running out of gas, pitching more innings in a row than he ever had before in the bigs. The karma of the walk came back to bite him. Lilly threw a fastball that was supposed to tail away from Relaford, but it got too much of the plate, and as Ugueto was trying to steal third, Relaford lined the ball into right.

Gerald Williams, a man with a gun for an arm, got to the ball quickly, but had not realized that Ugueto had slid into third, or he might have held the runner there with a throw home. Instead, Ugueto picked himself up and ran home safely. One hit, one run. Relaford was erased trying to steal by outstanding defensive catcher Alberto Castillo, and Lilly then struck out Charles Gipson, looking, to end the inning. But that one run had cost him. Kazahiro Sasaki, despite allowing a hit and a walk in the ninth, closed the door on the 1-0 Mariners win.

If I were Ted Lilly's mother, or manager, I'd be telling him right now how proud I am. Forget the losses,look at how well he's pitched! (ERA around 1.25?! K/BB ratio 22/3!?) He has matured since last year, his stuff is damn good, and the thing that has to make Joe Torre and others happy is that if Lilly can keep this up, they have a genuine stud on their hands. He's only twenty six years old, while Clemens and Wells are pushing forty. The Yankees can't very well go scoreless for him every time, either. If he keeps pitching this way, if he shows the guts, determination, control, and concentration he showed tonight, then this won't be the last chance he'll have at a no-hitter. I'm sure that's what a young Mike Mussina was told the first time he took a no-hitter deep as an Oriole. Maybe Mussina is telling Lilly that very thing on the bus back to the hotel right now.

If you believe in mystical coincidences, here's one for you. Derek Lowe of the Boston Red Sox pitched the first no-hitter in Fenway Park since 1965 earlier today, against the Devil Rays. Hideo Nomo pitched one for the Sox last year on the second game of the season, versus Baltimore. The last time Boston starters pitched no-hitters in back to back seasons was in 1917 and 1918. 1918 was the last time the Sox won a World Series. To have Lilly lose his no-hit bid on the same day that Lose completed his only makes it seem all the more cosmic a sign that the Red Sox will finally rise up and vanquish their New York oppressors.

Me? I think that's the way it always looks in April in Boston. Let's see a showdown in September, Lowe versus Lilly, and then see who comes out on top.