(Sports Network) - Mired in a three-game losing streak, the New York Yankees will now have to face one of baseball's hottest pitchers in tonight's middle test of a three-game home series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Toronto's Jesse Litsch enters this evening's tilt having won five consecutive decisions, and the young right-hander did not yield a single run over either of his two most recent mound trips. Since being hit hard in a loss at Tampa Bay on April 22, Litsch has amassed a 5-0 record and an excellent 1.96 earned run average in six starts plus one relief outing.

Litsch scattered seven hits to record his first career shutout in a May 24 triumph over Kansas City, then followed up by tossing seven scoreless frames to beat Oakland this past Thursday. He's also issued a mere two walks over his last 46 innings of work.

The 23-year-old faced the Yankees three times during his rookie campaign of 2007 and went 1-1 with a 6.08 ERA in those matchups. In his lone career start at Yankee Stadium, Litsch held the Bronx Bombers to one run and five hits through 7 2/3 innings in Toronto's 4-1 win last September.

New York will be sending out a hurler who's going through a pretty good stretch of his own in veteran Mike Mussina. The cerebral right-hander ran his season record to 8-4 with a solid six innings in Friday's 6-5 win at Minnesota, surrendering four runs -- two earned -- on six hits while walking just one.

Since losing three of his first four starts of the year, Mussina has posted a 7-1 record and a 3.51 ERA over eight outings since April 23.

The 39-year-old did suffer a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium back on April 2, a game in which Mussina was touched for four runs (3 earned) and eight hits over 5 2/3 frames. He had won five straight decisions over Toronto prior to that defeat and owns an outstanding 23-12 mark with a 3.35 ERA in 42 lifetime starts against the Jays.

New York is likely in need of a big effort out of Mussina following Joba Chamberlain's shaky performance in Tuesday's series opener. In his much- anticipated first major league start, the hard-throwing righty lasted just 2 1/3 innings in the Yankees' 9-6 loss to the Blue Jays.

Chamberlain yielded just one hit and struck out three during his short stint, but walked four batters and only threw 32 of his 62 pitches for strikes. He was charged with two runs allowed, one of which was unearned.

Dan Giese, called up from Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes Barre prior to the game, took the loss for the Yankees despite giving up just one run over 3 1/3 innings in relief of Chamberlain.

Toronto held a slim 3-2 lead after six innings but broke the game open with a six-run seventh, with both Rod Barajas and David Eckstein delivering two-RBI doubles during the frame.

Eckstein finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and Brad Wilkerson collected three hits for the Blue Jays, who halted a two-game slide and won for the ninth time in their last 12 contests.

Roy Halladay (7-5) worked the first six innings for Toronto and limited the Yankees to two runs and six hits.

New York won two of three encounters with the Jays in the Bronx from April 1-3 and is 19-13 against Toronto at home since the start of the 2005 campaign.