Johnny Damon's homer and 2 doubles back Mike Mussina in Yankees' 6-1 win over Mariners
By MIKE FITZPATRICK | Associated Press | May 3, 08 3:08 PM CDT in
Sports
Johnny Damon homered and doubled twice to help Mike Mussina win his third straight start in the New York Yankees' 6-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.
One day after co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner said he was "disappointed with the way the season has gone," the Yankees (16-16) rapped out 13 hits and beat Seattle for the second consecutive day following a three-game sweep by the Detroit Tigers in New York.
Derek Jeter had three hits, Damon scored three times and Mussina (4-3) outpitched Felix Hernandez, 17 years his junior, for his 254th win.
The slumping Mariners have lost four in a row, managing only seven runs during that stretch, and eight of 10 overall. They fell to 6-11 on the road and made two more errors after committing four in the first three innings of Friday night's 5-1 loss.
Mussina was in control all afternoon, using a sharp curveball and 68 mph changeup to strike out five batters in six strong innings. He passed Carl Hubbell on the career wins list while tying Jack Morris and Hall of Famer Red Faber for 39th place.
The 39-year-old right-hander improved to 50-20 during May, and 18-5 in 27 starts against Seattle overall. He is 7-0 in his past 10 appearances against the Mariners dating to Aug. 17, 2001.
Mussina struck out three in his final inning, drawing calls of "Moooose!" from the crowd of 52,810 on a brisk day with a gametime temperature of 52 degrees.
LaTroy Hawkins, Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras finished up with three scoreless innings of one-hit relief.
Hampered by a lack of run support all season, the 22-year-old Hernandez (2-2) lost his second consecutive start. He gave up 12 hits, one short of his career high, and six earned runs in 5 2-3 innings _ his shortest outing this year.
Even without injured sluggers Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada, the Yankees scored in the first inning for the fourth straight game. Damon led off with a double, advanced to third on Jeter's groundout and scored on Bobby Abreu's single.
Seattle tied it in the third on Ichiro Suzuki's two-out RBI single, but New York went back ahead in the bottom half. Damon got things going again with his 400th career double, then asked for the ball as a keepsake. Jeter followed with a run-scoring double and Hideki Matsui hit an RBI single over third base.
Matsui went to second when the ball slipped out of left fielder Raul Ibanez's hand, causing him to spike it to the turf for a throwing error. Melky Cabrera made it 4-1 with an RBI single to center that Suzuki bobbled for his first error this season.
Jose Molina snapped an 0-for-23 skid with a leadoff single in the sixth and Damon hit the next pitch to right for his fourth home run, making him 5-for-9 lifetime against Hernandez.
Notes:@ Suzuki got his fourth stolen base of the series in the third inning, though replays showed he was out. ... With his 390th double, Jeter passed Joe DiMaggio for fifth place on the franchise list. ... RHP Darrell Rasner, 4-0 with a 0.87 ERA in five outings at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, will start the series finale Sunday for the Yankees in place of injured Phil Hughes. RHP Carlos Silva (3-0, 2.79 ERA) goes for Seattle. ... Matsui extended his hitting streak to a team-high 13 games. ... Suzuki, a Gold Glove winner in each of his seven major league seasons, made one error all last year. ... Yankees 2B Robinson Cano is in a 3-for-34 slump. ... Seattle's four-game skid matches a season high.
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