(Sports Network) - The Yankees' distressed pitching staff got a brilliant outing from one of its young guns on Thursday. Now New York turns to an old reliable horse tonight in the opener of a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners in the Bronx.

Ian Kennedy, said to be one of the prospects it might have taken for the Yankees to land Johan Santana during the offseason, turned in his finest outing of the season Thursday against Baltimore to help guide New York to a 2-1 victory. Kennedy entered the game with an 0-3 mark and 8.48 earned run average, but yielded a season-low one run on four hits and four walks over six effective innings.

Kennedy got a no-decision, though, as he left with the game even at 1-1. Shelley Duncan's sacrifice fly in the fourth plated Hideki Matsui with New York's first run, while Robinson Cano's lone hit of the game came in the ninth inning, a game-winning single to left that also scored Matsui.

New York won its first series in five tries and has won two straight after dropping four in a row. Mariano Rivera (1-1) got the win as he threw a perfect ninth inning.

Andy Pettitte will aim to halt a personal five-start winless drought for New York tonight. Pettitte has dropped his last two starts and each of his last four decisions after taking a loss against the Mets on Saturday. In that Subway Series matchup in the Bronx, the lefty gave up three runs on seven hits in six innings, while fanning seven in his team's 7-4 setback.

Pettitte, who is 3-5 with a 4.42 ERA on the season, has yet to face Seattle this season and is 8-10 with a 4.81 ERA in 18 career starts against the Mariners.

Pettitte would like to carry over Kennedy's momentum into tonight's start and get on a roll, especially after the Yankees announced on Thursday that Chien- Ming Wang, who is tied for the team lead with six wins, will have his regularly-scheduled start on Saturday pushed back a day due to strained right calf.

The Yankees face a Seattle club tonight that is fresh off getting swept by the Detroit Tigers in three games after Thursday's 9-2 loss.

Miguel Batista (3-6) struggled early and ended up allowing five runs -- four earned -- on seven hits in a three-inning start. R.A. Dickey, recalled from Triple-A Tacoma earlier Thursday, gave up two runs over two innings, while Sean Green gave up a pair of runs in one frame.

Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4 and scored a run, while Raul Ibanez drove one in for the Mariners, who have lost six of nine.

Suzuki and Ibanez have fared well against Pettitte, as they are hitting a combined 15-for-35 (.429) with seven RBI off the left-hander.

Erik Bedard showed signs of his 2007 self Saturday against San Diego and draws the start tonight for Seattle. Bedard, who won 13 games for the Orioles last year and fanned 221 batters in 182 innings, held the Padres to a pair of runs on five hits over eight innings, fanning 10 in the win while improving to 3-2 with a 3.24 ERA. It marked Bedard's first double-digit strikeout game this season.

The left-hander faced the Yankees in the Bronx on May 2 and suffered his first loss of the year, yielding three runs (1 earned) on four hits with six strikeouts in seven innings. Bedard is 4-4 with a 3.32 ERA in 12 lifetime games (11 starts) against the Yankees.

Alex Rodriguez, who has homered in two of his three games since returning from the disabled list due to a quad injury, is a career .417 (10-for-24) batter against Bedard with two homers and six RBI.

The former Mariner, who is batting .295 with 29 homers and 74 RBI against his old team, went a combined 4-for-11 (.367) in the Baltimore series, his first action since suffering his injury in late April.

The Yankees swept a three-game set with the Mariners at home in early May and have won five straight against Seattle, all at home.