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Mussina, Cano help Yankees end Rays' home streak

May 15, 2008 - 3:13 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Mike Mussina continues to shine on the hill.

Mussina dazzled into the seventh inning and Robinson Cano went 4-for-4 with an RBI as the New York Yankees edged the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1, on Wednesday.

The veteran righthander (6-3) yielded just one run and five hits with four strikeouts through 6 1/3 innings for his fifth straight win, matching his longest stretch since capturing five consecutive decisions from April 19-May 10, 2006.

"Moose was tremendous," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Mussina. "He was great again. Our defense was great. Stellar plays. Three out of four infielders were dirty, diving, making plays. It was good baseball."

It was Mussina's 18th career win against the Rays, who had their franchise record 11-game home winning streak snapped.

"I approach it the same way I have been approaching it," Mussina said. "Changing speeds, moving the ball in and out. These guys are a little more aggressive so you have to be ready for them to swing in early counts."

"Some pitchers feel they can do well against certain teams," Tampa Bay's Cliff Floyd said. "I think Mussina feels good about facing us."

Tampa Bay sliced its deficit in half in the seventh inning. After walking rookie Evan Longoria, Mussina was relieved by Ross Ohlendorf, who gave up consecutive singles to Floyd and Dioner Navarro.

Navarro's bouncer up the middle scored Longoria to cut the lead to 2-1. But Ohlendorf escaped the two-on, one-out jam when Derek Jeter caught Gabe Gross' line drive and flipped to Cano to double Floyd at second.

"Gabe hit the ball really well," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "Two feet higher or to Jeter's left and it's a tie game."

Hard-throwing Joba Chamberlain pitched the eighth and closer Mariano Riviera bounced back to shut the door in the ninth for his 11th save for New York.

"(Riviera's) good," Maddon said. "The fastball is definitely alive and he's got that cutter. He's really good. He's going to have a monster year. He's looking really good."

Rivera suffered the loss in Tuesday's matchup after blowing the save in the 11th inning.

Hideki Matsui doubled and came home on Cano's run-scoring single in the fourth off Tampa Bay starter James Shields (4-3), who also gave up an RBI double to Bobby Abreu an inning later for a 2-0 lead.

Shields allowed two runs and six hits in 7 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out six.

"It's one of those games where you get outpitched," Shields said. ""We've been on a pretty good streak, so I just wanted to keep us in the game as long as I could. I've just got to tip my cap to Moose."

Floyd, Navarro and Carlos Pena all had two hits each for the Rays, who lost for just the sixth time in 21 games.

"It's been a nice run," Maddon said. "We played well again. Our guy (Shields) pitched another great game. Well-played game on both sides, they just scored one more run than us. It's one game. Expectations are high. I'm glad everyone's upset."