The Yankees played sound baseball defeating the Astro’s 8-4 behind Mike Mussina’s solid pitching performance. Mussina worked six innings, surrendering six hits and three runs while striking out four, pitching with poise and finesse. Mussina only made one mistake serving up a three-run home-run to Carlos Lee in the first inning, but settled down thereafter pinpointing his location painting the corners leaving the Astro’s befuddled. Ross Ohlendorf manned the 7th inning yielding one run, but the now reliable Kyle Farnsworth and Edwar Ramirez pitched scoreless innings to preserve the win. Farnsworth induced a key double play ball in his inning of work and has been a huge reason for the bullpens success as of late. Up to this point in the season Joe Girardi has done an excellent job managing the bullpen despite a variety of injuries, short starts from rookie starters, and Joba Chamberlain’s exit. The offense provided an array of timely hits and muscled their way back from a 3-0 deficit in the 2nd inning. The Yankees amassed five two-out RBI tonight and these are the clutch hits rub off on the team as a whole. Additionally, the offense pounded out five extra-base hitting the ball with authority and power. The sweltering hot bat of Alex Rodriguez has helped also, as he launched his 11th home-run of the year that just managed to sail into the stands. The Yankees have now won four of their last five games and are a season high three games above .500. The Yankees look to continue their hot streak tomorrow when Chien-Ming Wang squares off against Roy Oswalt.
Mike Mussina became the third pitcher overall to earn his 10th win this season and has now obtained double digit wins 17 consecutive seasons.
Video clip of Alex Rodriguez’s 11th home-run curtesy of MLB.com:
