ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Leave it to the last-place Devil Rays to provide some relief for the struggling Yankees. Mike Mussina pitched seven solid innings and Gary Sheffield went 3-for-4 with an RBI last night to help the Yankees rebound from a miserable homestand with a 6-2 victory that extended Tampa Bay’s losing streak to a season-high eight games.

Rey Sanchez had a two-run single and Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada also drove in runs for New York, which lost six of nine games at Yankee Stadium during a homestand that concluded Sunday with an ugly 8-6 loss to Toronto.

Mussina (2-2) allowed five hits, including Alex Sanchez’s two-run homer, in his 213th career victory. He struck out two and walked two before being replaced by Tom Gordon in the eighth.

Mariano Rivera struck out all three batters in the ninth for New York.

Sheffield had an RBI double in the fifth off Scott Kazmir (0-3), who allowed three runs – one earned – and eight hits in six innings. The Yankees scored three in the eighth off reliever Travis Harper to put the game away.

But not every Yankee had a good night. Andy Phillips struck out all five times he went to the plate, tying a major league record set 43 times previously.

Tampa Bay’s slide, which includes an 0-6 road swing, matches the second longest in the majors this year.

Kazmir equaled a career high with nine strikeouts and kept the Devil Rays in the game by escaping a jam in the third when he got Alex Rodriguez to ground out with the bases loaded. The Yankees stranded two more runners in the fourth, but not before Williams’s two out single drove in Posada for a 1-0 lead.

A lack of timely hitting has cost the Devil Rays throughout their losing streak, the club’s second-longest under manager Lou Piniella, who returned from a three-game suspension for his role in two bench-clearing scuffles with the Boston Red Sox.

The team is 1-for-13 with the bases loaded this season after failing in that situation again when Jorge Cantu flied out after Mussina gave up a single and two walks with two outs in the fourth.

The Yankees took advantage when Damon Hollins misjudged Rey Sanchez’s routine fly to right for a two base error, scoring twice in the fifth. Sheffield doubled to drive in Sanchez, then stole third and scored on Posada’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.

Hollins singled for the second hit off Mussina with two outs in the fifth. Alex Sanchez followed with his first homer since serving a 10-day suspension in April as the first player disciplined for violating major league baseball’s new policy on performance-enhancing drugs.

The Yankees pulled away in the eighth courtesy of more Devil Rays blunders. After centerfielder Carl Crawford misjudged Williams’s fly ball, a throwing error by Harper and a two-run single by Rey Sanchez made it 6-3.