Red-hot Yankees pound D-Backs, climb over .500

Jun 14, 2007, 2:30 GMT

Bronx, NY - The New York Yankees completed their long climb back over .500 behind Mike Mussina's longest outing of the season and Alex Rodriguez's baseball-best 25th home run, pounding Arizona, 7-2, in the middle installment of a three-game interleague series.

The streaking Yankees won their eighth straight game and moved above the treading water mark for the first time since sitting at 8-7 on April 20, a long road that has substantially trimmed their deficit in the American League East, now down to 8 1/2 games behind first-place Boston.

In the process, the Yankees exacted some revenge for Arizona's 4-3 series victory in the 2001 World Series. New York has won six of the eight regular season matchups since.

Mussina (3-3) mixed a cut fastball and sweeping curve with pinpoint control, giving up two runs on six hits without a walk and seven strikeouts over 7 2/3 frames. He threw 74 of his 101 pitches for strikes.

'I felt like I had more than one or two weapons to go with today,' Mussina said. 'It's nice to be out there on the days you feel like you have three weapons.'

His veteran counterpart Livan Hernandez (5-4) wasn't as successful, surrendering seven runs on nine hits with five walks and one strikeout in four innings. The right-hander's earned run average rose from 3.66 to 4.20.

Orlando Hudson had two hits and Conor Jackson hit his fifth home run of the season for the up-and-down Diamondbacks, losers in five of six.

Bobby Abreu extended his hitting streak to 12 games, while scoring two more runs. The right fielder has crossed the plate 17 times during the 12-game streak.

The Bronx Bombers lived up to their name on Wednesday, crushing three homers in the first four frames to build a 7-1 edge. Jorge Posada's line shot to right just cleared the wall to tie the game at 1-1 in the second then Rodriguez hit his 25th homer, a towering shot into the left-field seats for a 3-1 advantage in the third.

In the fourth, the Yankees scored four two-out runs to take command. Abreu singled, stole second and scored on Rodriguez's single to left. Posada then walked and Hideki Matsui pulled a three-run home run to right field.

'The Matsui home run hurt the most,' Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. 'Once he (Mussina) gets a lead, he gets better.'

The Diamondbacks scored the game's final run on Jackson's solo homer in the sixth. They also plated the first run when Chris Young's fly ball to center scored Mark Reynolds in the second.

Game Notes

Matsui's homer was his seventh of the season, while Posada hit his eighth. The catcher's homer was the 206th of his career, passing Dave Winfield for solo ninth on the Yankees' all-time list...Abreu stole his 11th base of the campaign...New York's eight-game win streak is its longest since a 10-game winning streak from May 7-17, 2005...Hernandez dropped to 0-3 lifetime against the Yankees...The Yankees moved to a MLB-best 109-73 since the inception of interleague play in 1997.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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