Yankees pitcher Mussina retires

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Yankees starter Mike Mussina announced his retirement Thursday, becoming the first pitcher to end his career after posting a 20-win season since Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1966.

Five-times All-Star Mussina, 39, capped a career that argues for Hall of Fame consideration with a 20-9 season for the Yanks, his first 20-win campaign.

In 18 major league seasons, the first 10 spent with the Baltimore Orioles, Mussina compiled a mark of 270-153.

The slightly-built right-hander, a master of control, walked 31 batters in 200 1/3 innings in 2008 and struck out 150 in registering an earned run average of 3.37.

Pitching his entire career in the hard-hitting American League East and during a period marked by widespread doping abuses that inflated power statistics in baseball, Mussina was a model of consistency.

Mussina reached 15 wins in a season 11 times and his .638 career winning percentage is sixth-best on the all-time list among major leaguers with at least 500 career starts.

The Stanford University graduate pitched to a career 3.68 ERA, notched 2,813 strikeouts and earned seven Gold Glove awards as the American League's best fielding pitcher.

He is the only American League hurler to record 17 consecutive seasons of 10-or-more wins (1992-2008) and only Walter Johnson (18) had more seasons of double-digits wins than Mussina among AL hurlers, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

(Writing by Larry Fine, Editing by Alan Baldwin)