NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Mike Mussina prepped for the postseason with seven solid innings Wednesday night as the New York Yankees clinched home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs with a 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Mussina (17-11), whose signing in the offseason bolstered one of baseball's best rotations, improved to 5-0 in his last six starts.
The righthander went seven innings, allowing one run and five hits with one walk and four strikeouts. The four strikeouts gave Mussina 210 for the season, tying him with Bob Turley (1955) for sixth place on the Yankees single-season list.
A victim of poor run support for most of the season, Mussina has allowed just just six earned runs and 26 hits over 45 innings in his last six outings. His ERA dropped to 3.20, moving him ahead of Minnesota's Joe Mays for second in the AL.
Mike Stanton struck out one in a perfect eighth inning and Mariano Rivera gave up a single in a scoreless ninth to notch his major league-leading 49th save in 56 opportunities.
The win locked up the second seed for the Yankees, assuring they again will meet the Oakland Athletics in the Division Series. Last season, New York won Game 5 in Oakland and went on to its third straight World Series title.
New York trailed, 1-0, when Derek Jeter had a one-out single in the sixth inning and Paul O'Neill followed by sending Jon Garland's 1-0 pitch over the right-field fence for his 21st homer.
O'Neill had missed 14 games with a stress fracture in his left foot.
Garland (6-7) went 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and five hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
