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Abreu, Mussina lead Yankees past Rays

Apr 8, 2008 - 4:10 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) - While there might be some concern about Derek Jeter, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi had to feel good about what he saw from Mike Mussina and Bobby Abreu on Monday.

Mussina allowed a run and two hits in six innings while Abreu collected three hits as the Yankees gained a split of their four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 6-1 victory.

The Yankees concluded their first homestand of the season with four wins and scored more than three runs for the second time in their first seven games. They did so with Jeter sitting out the final six innings after he departed the game in the top of the third with a strained left quadriceps.

Jeter said he felt the injury in Sunday's game, but did not want to make it any worse and also underwent a postgame MRI that revealed the strain.

"I just felt it, so I didn't run as hard as I could because I didn't want to do anything that will make it worse," Jeter said.

The Yankees do not plan on sending Jeter to the disabled list but do not anticipate him playing Tuesday afternoon in Kansas City.

"We'll see how it feels," Jeter said. "I don't know, I don't have a lot of experience with it. From what I was told, it wasn't that bad."

"We're not thinking DL right now," Girardi said. "We're thinking (day-to-day)."

Mussina rebounded from Wednesday's loss to Toronto, allowing a solo home run to Jonny Gomes in the third and a double to Mike DiFelice in the fifth and nothing else. He walked one, struck out three and threw 52 of 82 pitches for strikes.

"He kept them off-balance all night from both sides of the plate with his fastball," Girardi said. "His curveball was excellent, his changeup was very good."

"I think the best thing about the day was my curveball," Mussina said. "I threw it a lot and I could throw it for strikes. I could dump it in slow or throw it hard in the ground for strikeouts. So I was able to use both sides of the plate effectively. I didn't get into a bad count, so I made good pitches when I had to."

The 39-year-old righthander picked up his 251st career victory, tying Hall of Famer Bob Gibson for 42nd on the all-time list.

He also improved to 8-1 lifetime against Tampa Bay at Yankee Stadium and also picked up his 17th career win over the Rays, two behind Boston's Tim Wakefield for the most victories against them.

Mussina induced 11 groundball outs and the two hits allowed were his fewest since September 29, 2006 against Toronto.

"Mussina tonight, what he did was he had tremendous command of his off-speed pitches," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "He threw those for strikes at will. He mixed his fastball in judiciously but primarily pitched off-speed and not really hanging everything. He was on tonight.

Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth each pitched a scoreless inning but LaTroy Hawkins put two on in the ninth, forcing closer Mariano Rivera to warm up. Rivera did not have to enter the game as Hawkins finished up by striking out Gomes.

Abreu gave Mussina a two-run lead to work with when he slugged his first home run with one out in the first. Abreu, who is batting .400 this season, also singled in the third and led off the sixth with a triple to right.

"Bobby can do a lot of things and Bobby was in the middle of everything," Girardi said.

"It's very important," Abreu said of his quick start. "I know last year is last year but I was having a very slow start. It took me a couple of months but this year I'm pretty good the first week. I feel pretty good at the plate. I had a pretty good spring training and that's one of the things that helped me get the rhythm."

Alex Rodriguez plated Abreu with a single to right-center and scored on Hideki Matsui's double to right field to push the lead to 4-1.

Abreu fell short of becoming the first Yankee to hit for the cycle since Tony Fernandez in 1995 when he drew a one-out walk in the seventh.

The Yankees scored a season-high six runs and collected a season-best 11 hits. They added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Matsui and Robinson Cano.

Tampa Bay starter Jason Hammel (0-1) allowed four runs and eight hits in six innings.

"I thought he was good," Maddon said of Hammel. "I thought he pitched really well. That first inning, he didn't pick that spot with Abreu but I thought he settled in and pitched really well."