Mussina Puts Worries to Rest

At least Mike Mussina had a little bit of time to prepare.

Mussina, working on only three days’ rest, gave up four hits in 62/3 innings and the New York Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1, Tuesday night at New York for their sixth consecutive victory.

“Finding out yesterday, I think, made it easier,” Mussina said. “If I had come in here and found out it was just three or four hours instead of tomorrow, that would have made it tougher, I’m sure.”

Mussina (6-2) struck out five and walked three. He filled in for left-hander David Wells, who sat out his turn because of a strained lower back.

With Orlando Hernandez scratched from Monday night’s start and Wells also out, Mussina volunteered for the assignment.

“He came in and asked,” Manager Joe Torre said, “and I told him only if we scratched two starters. Of course, that is exactly what we did.”

Hernandez was put on the disabled list Tuesday with an upper-back strain.

Although he expected “not to be as sharp” as usual, Mussina was pleasantly surprised about how well his stuff worked.

“Sometimes, it falls into place for you and I think that’s what happened for me. I had really good off-speed stuff the last half of the time I was in there,” he said.

Jason Giambi and Rondell White hit solo homers for the Yankees, giving them a major league-leading 74 in 43 games.

Chicago 8, Boston 3--Magglio Ordonez had four hits at Boston, and Dan Wright (5-4) pitched into the seventh inning for his second consecutive strong outing.

Ordonez and Frank Thomas each drove in two runs, and Paul Konerko had three hits for Chicago.

Wright, coming off his first career shutout Thursday against Texas, gave up three runs and five hits in 61/3 innings. He struck out a career-high seven.

Darren Oliver (4-3) lost his second consecutive decision after giving up five runs and nine hits in 41/3 innings.

Minnesota 8, Texas 2--Torii Hunter homered, doubled and drove in five runs at Minneapolis, and the Twins handed the Rangers their fifth consecutive defeat.

David Ortiz had four hits for the Twins, who improved to a major league-best 17-6 at home.

Eric Milton (6-3), who gave up 11 runs in his last two starts, struck out a season-high seven.

Milton breezed through five innings before giving up a two-run homer to Rafael Palmeiro in the sixth. Milton gave up seven hits and two walks, and Mike Jackson pitched out of a jam in the seventh by striking out Juan Gonzalez with two on and two out.

Detroit 5, Cleveland 1--Mark Redman pitched the first complete game of his career and Dmitri Young and Randall Simon hit consecutive home runs at Detroit to give the Tigers their first five-game winning streak in more than a year.

Redman (1-5) gave up 10 hits in his 45th start. He gave up an unearned run, struck out three and walked three.

Tampa Bay 1, Seattle 0--Joe Kennedy (3-3) pitched a four-hitter at Seattle for his first career shutout and Brent Abernathy hit a run-scoring single in the top of the eighth inning.

The Mariners lost their third in a row, and the Devil Rays won their third in a row for the first time since April 21-24.

Baltimore 6, Oakland 4--Chris Singleton and Gary Matthews Jr. had run-scoring singles in the 14th inning for the Orioles at Oakland.