Yankees Edge Orioles 7-6 Behind Posada & Mussina

The New York Yankees got two home runs from catcher Jorge Posada to help them edge the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium Thursday 7-6. The win was the Yankees 10th in their last 11 games and helped increase their lead in the AL East to one full game over the idle Boston Red Sox. Both teams have ten games remaining in the regular season.

Mike Mussina pitched for the first time since August 29 and threw six strong innings, allowing just one unearned run on six hits. Mussina threw a total of 76 pitches and improved his record to 13-8. Bruce Chen took the loss for Baltimore, falling to 12-10.

The biggest hero for the Yankees was Posada who homered to tie the game in the fifth inning before hitting a three-run blast into the upper-deck an inning later to give the Bronx Bombers the lead.

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera was not available tonight after pitching three straight games so manager Joe Torre turned to Tom Gordon to pitch the ninth inning. Despite allowing a two-run home run to Melvin Mora, Gordon earned his second save as he held the slumping Orioles at bay and preserved the one-run victory.

The loss guaranteed the Orioles their eighth consecutive losing season as they fell to 70-82 after a strong early start. The last time the franchise had that many consecutive losing seasons was between 1946-56 when the St. Louis Browns and Orioles suffered through 11 straight losing campaigns.

The Yankees will now host the Toronto Blue Jays for three games this weekend while the Red Sox visit the Orioles. It appears the AL East and the AL wild card race will go down to the season's final games. The Yankees and Red Sox close the season next weekend with three games at Fenway Park.