Home run for Yankees with win over Blue Jays

Rodriguez homered in his third straight game and Mussina made another sharp start, leading the New York Yankees over the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 Wednesday.

New York is 7-7 after playing 11 of 14 on the road. The Yankees host Baltimore on Friday night in the start of a nine-game homestand.

"We would love to be 9-5 or something like that," Rodriguez said. "But we've been on the road for basically 14 days. We're very excited to get home."

Rodriguez said the road start was OK given that the Yankees traveled to Oakland, the Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota and Toronto — all possible postseason contenders.

"There's probably eight or nine teams that are legitimate World Series contenders in the American League, and that's very unique because you probably haven't had that in over 20 years," Rodriguez said. "There is great parity in the American League. There are probably three teams in each division that can potentially win the World Series."

Rodriguez homered in the fifth inning, tying Juan Gonzalez for 35th on baseball's career list with his 434th homer. Rodriguez is hitting .462 (12 for 26) in New York's wins and .148 (4 for 27) in its losses.

He arrived early before the game to work on his swing.

"I'm getting more comfortable," he said.

Mussina (2-1) struck out a season-high seven in 7-1/3 innings, allowing one run and seven hits. He lowered his earned-run average to 2.67.

"It was a masterpiece," New York manager Joe Torre said. "He's as good as we've seen him early in the year."

Kyle Farnsworth got the last two outs of the eighth and Mariano Rivera, bouncing back from Saturday's loss in Minnesota, pitched a perfect ninth for his second save.

"That's the way you draw it up," Mussina said.

Mussina knows his team is counting on him and Randy Johnson to pitch well despite their ages. Johnson is 42, Mussina 37.

"We're the old guys, and everybody keeps reminding us," Mussina said. "If the two of us can do what we've been doing for the last 16 or 18 years, then that's great."

Toronto manager John Gibbons said it was just Mussina's day.

"When he's on, he keeps you off balance. He picked the plate apart," Gibbons said.

Former Yankee Ted Lilly (1-1) gave up two runs, seven hits and five walks in five innings.