BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Mike Mussina helped the New York Yankees prove they can still win with pitching.
Mussina pitched eight strong innings and Jorge Posada and Raul Mondesi homered in the fifth as the Yankees held on for a 2-1 victory over the struggling Minnesota Twins.
New York scored 61 runs in its first seven games and had not been held to less than five runs in any contest, giving its pitching staff plenty of room for error. On Wednesday, the offense finally struggled, but Mussina more than picked up the slack.
"I think it's important for us as a team to win these games," Mussina said. "This was the first low-scoring, close game we've been in all year. It's important to show ourselves that we can win these types of games after a week of games that we've been scoring seven, eight or nine runs."
"A win is a win," Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams said. "I don't think were going to be able to win all our games by a lot of runs. Some games we're going to generate a lot of offense, some games we're going to win with pitching a defense."
Mussina battled the 40-degree conditions and surrendered one unearned run, six hits and two walks. He struck out eight and improved to 19-2 lifetime against Minnesota - his best winning percentage against any team.
"I had pretty good stuff. Some of it kind of surprised me," said Mussina, who threw 120 pitches. "I had a better breaking ball than I thought I'd have considering how cold it was."
Minnesota starter Kyle Lohse (1-1) was nursing a 1-0 lead when Posada drove a 2-1 pitch over the right field wall with one out in the fifth. After Robin Ventura struck out, Mondesi belted his first homer since September 10 for a 2-1 lead.
"I didn't realize (the homerless streak) until I was asked about it," said Mondesi, who went 80 at-bats with a home run. "I try to not pay attention to things like that. Things happen and you just have to keep trying."
Mussina worked around a two-out double in the sixth and allowed a one-out single in the seventh before getting Luis Rivas to bounce into a double play. He pitched a perfect eighth before giving way to the bullpen.
Juan Acevedo worked around one-out single in the ninth and needed just 10 pitches to notch his second save.
Minnesota, which has lost eight straight against New York, has been held to three runs or less in seven of its first eight games.
"We're just not getting hits with guys on base," Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "We've had plenty of chances, we just haven't capitalized. That's pretty frustrating as a team, because we expect to pick those guys up in those situations."
Mussina overshadowed an excellent performance by Lohse, who gave up just two runs and three hits while striking out five in seven innings.
"Lohse had everything tonight," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He was very good. You can't do much better. We just didn't pick him up offensively."
Lohse retired the first nine batters he faced and allowed just one hit - an infield single by Alfonso Soriano - before surrendering Posada's game-tying homer.
The Twins scored their lone run in the second inning. Bobby Kielty singled with one out and went to second when Mondesi bobbled the ball.
Kielty moved to third on Dustan Mohr's grounder and scored on single by Pierzynski.
