New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina showed he still has the right stuff in his return to the starting rotation on Wednesday night.

Mussina tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings as the Yankees dumped the Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 before a crowd of 27,082 at the Rogers Centre.

John McDonald is late tagging Hideki Matsui in Wednesday's 4-1 Blue Jays loss to the New York Yankees.
(J. P. Moczulski/Canadian Press)

Closer Mariano Rivera recorded the final four outs for his 26th save in 29 opportunities.

With the win, the Yankees kept pace with the Boston Red Sox, who rallied to beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-4 and remain five games up in the American League East Division.

New York leads the AL wild-card race by four games over the Detroit Tigers; Toronto trails by 11 games.

Mussina (9-10) scattered five hits, walked three batters and struck out one in his first start for the Yankees since Aug. 27.

"I just reminded them that I'm still here and I can still pitch," he said. "Hopefully, the guys making decisions will give me a chance to get back out there a couple more times."

"He was terrific," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "He stayed ahead most of the night.

"I'm just really pleased and I know he is happy about it. Certainly, Moose showed us that we can send him out there and he is back to being the kind of pitcher that we know he is."

Mussina was removed from the rotation following three rocky starts, only to be reinserted when Roger Clemens was shelved with ligament damage in his right elbow.

"It was a lot more satisfying today, coming out of the game, than it was those other starts," Mussina said. "When I look back on this year, those three games are probably going to ruin my year, [but] I have got to live with that, and move on from it."

Clemens is slated to return Saturday.

"Right now, I expect to," he said. "I'm pushing forward."

Robinson Cano singled in two runs as the Yankees (83-62) extended their winning streak to seven games.

Hideki Matsui, mired in a 2-for-31 slump, contributed a run batted in, a run scored and a stolen base.

"That is how they whip you, that is how they beat you," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "They make you bring it over the plate and when you're forced to do it [enough times], they kill you."

Toronto starter Dustin McGowan (10-9) took the loss, yielding four runs and three hits with three walks and six strikeouts in five innings.

"I threw a lot of pitches (99) for five innings," he said. "I was just deep in counts.

"It seemed like every guy was a full count. It was just a grind out there, man."

Relievers Scott Downs, Jason Frasor and Jeremy Accardo pitched four shutout innings for the Blue Jays (72-73), losers in five straight games and seven of nine.

Strong start for Yankees

New York took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez drew two-out walks and Matsui hit a run-scoring double off the left-field wall.

Rodriguez scampered home with the second run on a wild pitch.

The Yankees doubled the margin in the fourth inning when Matsui walked, Jorge Posada singled and Giambi was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Cano, who smacked a two-run single to left.

Toronto trimmed it to 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning as Russ Adams lined a leadoff double off Joba Chamberlain, moved to third base on a Frank Thomas groundout and scored on Rodriguez's throwing error to first.

It was the first run charged to Chamberlain, but the rookie reliever has yet to concede an earned run in 16 innings, striking out 20 over that span.

Chamberlain's shutout string was the longest by a Yankees pitcher at the start of his career since Slow Joe Doyle opened with 18 scoreless innings in 1906.

With files from the Canadian Press