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Mussina sharp as Yankees rally past Indians

Apr 29, 2008 - 4:39 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Mike Mussina's pitching woes might be behind him, but the veteran righthander has a new problem - finding his house keys.

Mussina pitched five effective innings to pick up his 253rd career victory as the New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians, 5-2, on Monday night.

The Yankees won the last two games to split the four-game series against the Indians and finish up a grueling stretch that saw them play 18 of 20 games on the road.

"I've got to find my house keys," joked Mussina. "It was basically a seven-city road trip over three weeks."

The Yankees went 10-10 during the stretch, but will wake up tomorrow in their own beds and only one game out of first place.

"We're not where we want to be, but we didn't get buried," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

Mussina (3-3) moved into a tie with Carl Hubbell for 41st place on baseball's all-time wins list. The 39-year-old gave up two runs and scattered seven hits in his five innings.

Jonathan Albaladejo, Kyle Farnsworth, and Joba Chamberlain each threw a scoreless inning and Mariano Rivera worked a perfect ninth to pick up his eighth save in as many chances.

It was the second consecutive solid start for Mussina after getting knocked around by the Boston Red Sox in his previous two outings.

"Tonight was tougher than in Chicago," said Mussina. "There weren't many easy outs. I made pitches when I had to."

Despite holding the Indians to two runs, Mussina found himself trailing 2-0 as he left the field after the fifth.

Indians starter Aaron Laffey held the Yankees hitless through the first five innings, but New York manufactured four runs in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead, despite hitting only one ball to the outfield.

Melky Cabrera and Derek Jeter led off the sixth with infield singles. Bobby Abreu followed with a single to left to load the bases. Laffey quickly got ahead of Alex Rodriguez, but plunked the Yankees cleanup hitter on a 1-2 pitch.

Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui followed with RBI groundouts to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead and end Laffey's night.

"It was a case of bad luck, I guess," Laffey said. "It's tough when you have an inning like that." New York tacked on another run in the frame on Morgan Ensberg's infield single off of reliever Jensen Lewis.

"It's not how hard you hit them, but where you hit them," Girardi said. "It wasn't pretty, but I will take it."

Hideki Matsui capped the scoring in the eighth when he doubled to deep right-center field to score Johnny Damon and give the Yankees a 5-2 edge.

Laffey (0-1), who was called up from Class AAA Buffalo prior to the game, allowed four runs on three hits. He also walked a batter and hit two batters.