Maddux Too Tough for Mussina

Greg Maddux outpitched Mike Mussina, shutting the New York Yankees down into the seventh inning as the Atlanta Braves won, 4-1, Sunday night.

The Braves are 8-1 on their 12-game road trip and have moved within three games of Philadelphia in the National League East--the closest they’ve been since May 2.

After the teams combined for 27 runs in the first two games of the series, Maddux and Mussina provided a more typical low-scoring game between baseball’s most dominant teams over the past decade.

Maddux (6-5) was hurt only by Joe Oliver’s solo home run in the second as he gave up seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.

The Yankees swung early in the count against Maddux--six of 27 hitters put the first ball in play--but couldn’t translate the aggressiveness into runs.

New York only twice put two runners on in an inning against him and went hitless in three opportunities with runners in scoring position. The Yankees are hitting .249 in that situation this season.

Jose Cabrera got four outs in relief of Maddux, and John Rocker pitched the ninth for his 18th save in 20 chances.

Rafael Furcal hit a go-ahead run-scoring single during a two-run fifth inning against Mussina (5-7) as Atlanta took two of three in the series.

The Braves kept up their regular-season success at Yankee Stadium, winning for the seventh time in 11 interleague games. But the postseason has been a different story, with Atlanta losing its last eight World Series games--all against the Yankees.

Mussina was helped by diving catches from center fielder Bernie Williams and left fielder David Justice, but once again didn’t get much support at the plate as he lost his third consecutive start. The Yankees have averaged only 3.5 runs in Mussina’s 13 starts.

Facing the opposition’s ace hasn’t helped. After Mussina matched up with Boston’s Pedro Martinez in successive starts at the end of May, Yankee Manager Joe Torre held the right-hander back a day to avoid a third consecutive showdown with the three-time Cy Young winner.

Mussina gave up six runs in a 10-3 loss to Baltimore Tuesday night and ended up facing Maddux, a four-time Cy Young award winner, in this start. Mussina gave up four runs--three earned--and six hits in eight innings.