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Mussina, Yankees take on Blue Jays

Sep 23, 2007 - 2:05 PM Toronto (78-76) at NY Yankees (89-65) 1:05 pm EDT

BRONX, New York (Ticker) - Mike Mussina makes his final case to be in the postseason rotation as the New York Yankees take on the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday in the third game of a four-game series.

Mussina (10-10, 5.01 ERA) has put together two strong outings after being pounded in a four-start stretch, which ended with the 17-year veteran being demoted to the bullpen.

The righthander went 0-3 from August 16 to September 3, surrendering 21 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings and was dropped from the rotation in favor of rookie Ian Kennedy. However, Mussina has rebounded by throwing 12 2/3 scoreless innings, winning his last two starts against Toronto and Baltimore, respectively.

Although the American League East is still well in New York's sights, the Yankees have a magic number of just three over the Detroit Tigers (84-71) in the AL wild card standings. New York also just sits 2 1/2 games back of the Boston Red Sox (92-63) for the division lead.

Toronto will counter with Dustin McGowan (11-9, 3.84) on the mound. The righthander pitched a complete game in his last start on Monday against Boston, giving up one run and five hits with nine strikeouts to gain the victory. The 25-year-old is 2-1 against New York this season.

The teams have played a pair of wild games in the first two contests of this series. Toronto defeated the Yankees, 5-4, in 14 innings on Friday after New York had scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game. Saturday's matchup saw the Yankees even the series with a 12-11 win in 10 innings, after both teams blew leads in the eighth inning.