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Mussina reaches 15 wins as Yankees top Rangers

Aug 8, 2008 - 4:28 AM By Jay Miller PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Mike Mussina threw seven scoreless innings, striking out six, to notch his American League-leading 15th win of the year as the New York Yankees blanked the Texas Rangers, 3-0, on Thursday to earn a split of their four-game series.

It marked Mussina's sixth consecutive win over the Rangers in Arlington and his sixth straight road victory overall this season. The 39-year-old righthander has held his opponents to three runs or less in each of his last seven road starts.

Mussina (15-7) scattered eight hits and walked one on Thursday. The veteran, who managed just 11 wins and a career-high 5.15 ERA in 2007, induced 11 groundouts while lowering his ERA to 3.27.

"I don't know if every inning (there was) a guy on second or third, but it sure seemed like it," Mussina said. "I was just able to get the outs when I needed it. I got the groundball double play when I needed it."

Mussina surpassed 3,500 innings pitched Thursday, a mark of longevity he deemed "a pretty good number."

"When you get to start 500 games, you get to put up some numbers like that," he said.

Derek Jeter, who started at designated hitter for the first time this season and just the eighth time in his career, gave New York an early 1-0 advantage with his seventh home run of the year - a solo shot over the left-center field wall in the first inning. It was Jeter's 202nd career home run, tying him with Bill Dickey for 12th place on the Yankees' all-time list.

"They said they needed some pop from the DH position, so..." Jeter joked. "No, I don't DH much."

New York's captain added an RBI single in the ninth and ended the night 3-for-4.

Rangers starter Scott Feldman (4-5) held the Yankees at bay for the next three innings, allowing only three hits over that span.

The normally hot offense of Texas, however, failed to ignite against Mussina.

"He didn't give us pitches with a whole heck of a lot of the plate. Mike is capable of doing that. He bent, but he didn't break," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "We had him. If we got a couple of hits, it might have been a different story."

The Yankees doubled their lead in the fifth on an RBI single by Johnny Damon. New York added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on Jeter's base hit and Mariano Rivera tossed a perfect ninth to remain a perfect 28-for-28 in save opportunities this season.

"We don't have the luxury of being inconsistent at this point," Jeter said. "We've got 47 games left and some teams in front of us. We need to string together some wins and play well."

Bobby Abreu singled to extend his hitting streak to a season-high 10 games. He has reached safely in 26 consecutive games.

Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-4 against his former team and his hitless in his last 15 at-bats.