St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Mike Mussina pitched into the seventh inning, and Xavier Nady and Alex Rodriguez both homered as New York bested Tampa Bay, 7-2, in the opener of a three-game set from Tropicana Field.

Rodriguez led off the eighth inning by blasting his 30th home run of the year over the wall in center off Jason Hammel. It was also the 548th career homer for the reigning AL MVP, tying former Philadelphia Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt for 12th on the all-time big league list.

Mussina (17-7) allowed two runs on 10 hits while walking one and striking out eight for the Yankees, who won their second straight game but trail the Rays by 11 games in the AL East and Boston by seven games in the wild card race.

"We are just trying to win ball games any way we can," said Mussina. "I'm just trying to contribute on my day, so today was a decent day."

Damaso Marte along with Joba Chamberlain and Dan Giese, who were both activated off the disabled list before the game, combined for three innings of scoreless relief to close things out.

Johnny Damon added an RBI triple for New York, while Hideki Matsui had a run- scoring single.

Cliff Floyd and Shawn Riggans each had an RBI for Tampa Bay, which lost for the first time in six games but still leads the AL East by four games over the Red Sox.

Matt Garza (11-8) surrendered six runs -- four earned -- on five hits in five- plus innings en route to the loss.

"I was more disappointed about the whole situation," said Garza. "Tonight was one of those nights when I was not all intact and I paid for it."

Trailing 1-0, the Yankees bounced back to take the lead in the fourth. Derek Jeter got on with an infield single, stole second and advanced to third on a Bobby Abreu fly ball. After Rodriguez walked, Jason Giambi deadlocked the game with a sac fly to center. Nady then followed with a monstrous two-run home run to left that bounced off the catwalk at the top of the dome and made it a 3-1 game.

New York took advantage of some sloppy Garza defense to add two more runs in the fifth. Robinson Cano led off the frame by bouncing back to the box but Garza threw the ball past Carlos Pena at first for a two-base error. Cano went to third on a sacrifice bunt, and Damon then laced an RBI triple to left- center before Jeter plated him with a ground ball to short.

The Yankees kept pulling away with another run in the sixth. Rodriguez led off with a single and Tampa Bay quickly pulled Garza in favor of Trever Miller. The left-handed reliever plunked Giambi and fanned Nady before Matsui lined a sharp single to center that plated Rodriguez.

Tampa Bay chased Mussina when Gabe Gross and Riggans opened the seventh with consecutive doubles to make it a 6-2 game. New York manager Joe Girardi called on Marte, who promptly gave up a single to Akinori Iwamura but recovered to punch out B.J. Upton and Pena. Chamberlain then came on and got pinch-hitter Rocco Baldelli to ground out and end the threat.

The home run by Rodriguez in the eighth accounted for the final margin.

The Rays ran themselves out of a run in the second. Willy Aybar started things with a single and Eric Hinske followed by ripping a ball off the top of the wall in left. Not realizing Aybar had stopped at third, Hinske rounded second on his way to a triple. With two runners at third, Aybar was forced to break for home and was thrown out easily. Mussina recovered from there to get Jason Bartlett on a grounder to third before fanning Gross to end the threat.

Tampa Bay finally took the lead with a run in the third when Upton, Pena and Floyd put together consecutive two-out singles.