Derek Jeter homered and drove in three runs, Mike Mussina had another strong outing, and the Yankees got off to a much better start against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays this season with a 9-1 victory last night.

Jason Giambi also knocked in three runs to give him eight RBI in two games. Jeter finished with three hits and scored three times. He has 16 hits in his last 30 at-bats (.533).

Mussina beat 22-year-old lefty Scott Kazmir and shut down a depleted lineup missing Carl Crawford, Jorge Cantu, Aubrey Huff, and Julio Lugo.

Last-place Tampa Bay won the season series a year ago, going 11-8 against New York- including 6-3 at Yankee Stadium after finishing 0-10 in the Bronx in 2004. The Devil Rays were the first team since the 1974 Detroit Tigers to finish last and beat New York 11 times.

But the Yankees had an easy time in the first of 18 meetings this year. They have outscored their opponents 22-3 in winning three in a row, and New York pitchers have allowed only one run in four of their past five games.

Pitching at home for the first time this year, Mussina (3-1) yielded only a solo homer to Yankees nemesis Jonny Gomes in six-plus innings. The right-hander allowed four hits, struck out seven and did not walk a batter for his fifth solid outing in five starts this season. He left with an 8-1 lead and improved to 14-5 against Tampa with his 227th career win.

Kazmir (2-2) struggled with his control as he often does, walking five in five innings. He gave up four runs – three earned – and seven hits, striking out only two.

Gomes connected in the first inning, his fifth home run in seven games on Tampa Bay’s trip. His 10th homer tied the club record for a month, also shared by Jose Canseco (April 1999) and Aubrey Huff (May 2003).Gomes,who hit .349 with four homers against the Yankees last year, began the day tied for the AL lead in home runs and RBI.

After Kazmir walked leadoff hitter Johnny Damon on four pitches in the bottom half, Jeter drove an 0-2 pitch over the right-center fence. Another run scored on a two-out throwing error by third baseman Ty Wigginton.

Damon delivered a sacrifice fly in the fourth for a 4-1 lead, and the Yankees broke it open with a four-run sixth against Tampa Bay’s bullpen. Jeter and Sheffield hit consecutive RBI singles, and Giambi pulled a two-run double down the line past drawn-in first baseman Travis Lee.

Jeter doubled and scored on Giambi’s sacrifice fly in the eighth.

***

Baseball investigators have started interviews in the steroids investigation headed by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell.

“We’ve begun the process,” Mitchell said yesterday before a speech at the University of Southern Maine. “A team of lawyers and investigators are in the process of conducting interviews. We’re going to follow the evidence wherever it leads.”

Mitchell downplayed criticism that there is a conflict for him to lead the probe since he is a director of the Boston Red Sox and chairman of the Walt Disney Co., the parent of ESPN, which is a national broadcast partner of baseball. ESPN also is televising Barry Bonds’s reality series.

“As far as criticism goes, you get criticized if you do something and criticized if you don’t do something,” Mitchell said.

– Associated Press