Moose Makes Statement for Yankees

YANKEES 7

RAYS 2

Mike Mussina is just three wins away from a personal milestone. The crafty veteran righty found a way to baffel the first place Tampa Bay Rays 7-2, Tuesday night to capture his 17 victory of the season.

Mussina never allowed the Rays to capitalize on their opportunites. The Rays scattered ten hits on Mussina in his six innings of work, but could only manage to get two runs across. The Rays ended up leaving 19 men on base for the night.

As for the Yankee bats, they exploded for the second straight night. In the fourth inning, Derek Jeter singled and stole second to get things going. Jeter would later take third on a sacrifice fly by Bobby Abreu. Jeter scored on another sacrifice fly, this time by Jason Giambi to tie the game at one.

Next, Xavier Nady put one into the seats, a two run jack, extending the Yankee lead to 3-1.

In the fifth with Robinison Cano on third, Johnny Damon laced a tripple to deep center. Cano scored easily from third for the 4-1 lead. Jeter, once again was in the middle of things, this time grounding out into an RBI as Damon came in from third.

Finally, in the seventh, Alex Rodriguez put an exlimation point on the night hitting his 30 homer of the season to give New York a 7-2 lead.

The Yankees take game one of a statement series against the Rays. The Rays may win the AL East, but they won't do it without having to deal with the Yankees.