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Yankees look for continued success vs. Rangers

May 9, 2007 - 3:51 PM Texas (13-19) at NY Yankees (15-16) 7:05 pm EDT

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- It was not too long ago that New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner implored his team to improve. Thanks to a slew of contests against the Texas Rangers, they have.

The Yankees aim for their eighth straight victory against the Rangers when the teams face off in the middle contest of a three-game series Wednesday.

After a disastrous April which had New York in last place in the American League East, Steinbrenner expressed support for manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman but admitted that the team's performance was not acceptable.

Since then, the Yankees have gone 6-2 with four of those wins coming against the Rangers, including an 8-2 victory on Tuesday. Andy Pettitte pitched seven effective innings, Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 15th home run and Doug Mientkiewicz scored a pair of runs.

New York will look to keep it going behind Mike Mussina (1-1, 5.73 ERA), who looked solid in his first start since straining his hamstring on April 11. The righthander allowed one run and four hits in five innings in a 5-2 win vs. the Rangers on Thursday.

With the win, Mussina improved to 16-12 with a 3.78 ERA in 34 career starts vs. Texas.

The Rangers will counter with Robinson Tejeda (3-2, 3.89), who opposed Mussina in his return last week. In that outing, he yielded three runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings, while striking out six and walking one.

Texas will get some help in its bullpen as oft-injured closer Eric Gagne was activated from the disabled list Tuesday.