At the start of the eighth inning it looked as though the Yankees had a laugher on their hands. Mike Mussina was sailing with an 8-1 lead. He surrendered a single to the first batter and was replaced by Aaron Small. Small gave up three hard hits while retiring only one batter and left with the score 8-3. Kyle Farnsworth entered next and was able to strike out Mark Teixeira with the bases loaded for the second out but walked Phil Nevin to make the score 8-4. Rivera replaced Farnsworth and was immediately greeted with a two run single from Hank Blalock and then a RBI single by Kevin Mench to make the score 8-7. Rivera hit Brad Wilkerson with an 0-2 pitch but then retired Rod Barajas on a bouncer near the bag at second which ended the inning. Rivera held on in the ninth with the aid of a slick fielding play from Derek Jeter to save the game.

The Yankees got two runs in the first when Vicente Padilla was wild and threw 39 pitches. A-Rod got an RBI force out and Posada drew a bases loaded walk for the second run. The Rangers came back with a run from a triple by Brad Wilkerson and an RBI groundout from Barajas. The Yankees opened it up with a five run fourth inning which featured a two run single from A-Rod. Jeter added another RBI single later to extend the Yankees lead to 8-1.

Mussina was brilliant through seven innings allowing only two hits and one run, but left after the leadoff single in the eighth. The Yankees bullpen imploded but as stated above got the huge outs when they needed it most. The series resumes tonight with Shawn Chacon on the hill for the Bronx Bombers.