FORT MYERS, Fla. -- One year ago Saturday, Mike Mussina and the Yankees were on a plane, headed for Japan. Mussina, who didn't hide his true feelings about that trip, was reminded of that on Saturday as he made a crack about having to drive from Tampa to Fort Myers to make his penultimate start of the spring.

"And I was complaining about 2:15 in the car," said a smirking Mussina. "This was around the corner compared to that trip."

Mussina had a solid outing against the Twins at Hammond Stadium, allowing three runs on six hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out four. Two of the three runs came in the third inning, as he walked Justin Morneau before grooving a 2-0 pitch to Torii Hunter, who drilled it for a home run.

"Except for Hunter, I had a pretty good day," said Mussina, who threw 84 pitches. "In March, you can go out and pitch well, you can go out and pitch poorly. You just have to keep going out there, get some innings in and get some consistency."

In five starts this spring, Mussina is 2-1 with a 4.73 ERA. John Flaherty, who caught the right-hander on Saturday, said that Mussina looked more like himself against Minnesota than he had all spring.

"He started showing us what Mike Mussina does," Flaherty said. "Dropdowns with his breaking ball, changing some arm angles on his fastball -- he took a big step forward today."

"Mussina was real good," said manager Joe Torre. "He just seemed to lose his slot where he walked the guy and got behind Torii Hunter. You get in trouble when that happens, but other than that, he was real good."

Mussina doesn't know when he will take the ball for his first regular-season start, as Torre and Mel Stottlemyre won't announce how they will set up the starting rotation until Monday. With three off-days in the first 10 days of the season, Torre said that the team would have to skip one of the starters' first turns.

"We can't go wrong, whichever way we do it," Torre said. "The three off-days, moving [the season opener] to Sunday night, threw a big monkey wrench into it. We have to skip somebody, otherwise everybody is going to get more rest than they need to get."

No matter what the Yankees decide, Mussina is unlikely to be the pitcher that gets skipped. Despite starting the season opener for the Yankees last year, Mussina won't have that honor again, as Torre named Randy Johnson as the Opening Day hurler earlier this week.

"I've pitched in any one of a number of roles. A long time ago, in my best year, I pitched as the No. 4 guy," Mussina said, referring to the 1994 season. "I've been one, two, three -- it doesn't matter. We're all going to go out and pitch 33 or 34 times. It's more important who goes out first in the postseason, but in the six-month marathon, it doesn't matter to me."

Progress for Bernie: Bernie Williams took the next step toward a return to the field on Saturday, taking batting practice at Legends Field for the first time since he strained his back last Sunday.

With Torre watching, Williams hit from both sides of the plate, reporting no problems with his balky back. Williams will play in an intrasquad game at the Yankees' minor league complex on Sunday morning, where he will get a few at-bats and see some time in center field.

"I think getting into a game-playing situation, that's going to be a real test," Williams said. "Everything that I'm doing right now has been controlled. Swings, I can control how far and how hard I want to swing. If I want to hit the ball this way or that way. In the game, I don't have such control."

"He felt fine and didn't have any problems either way. That's good news," Torre said. "We'll get him enough at-bats, but we don't want to overdo it. We'll give him whatever he thinks he can handle."

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Williams is hitting just .091 this spring, going 3-for-33 in 11 games. Torre doesn't believe that the time Williams missed will set him back at all when the season starts.

"He had 30-plus at-bats before this happened," Torre said. "If you can get your guys 50 or 60 at-bats, I don't see it being a problem."

If all goes well Sunday, Williams could play Monday against the Blue Jays in Dunedin.

Flash feeling good: Flaherty has battled himself all spring, struggling to find his swing at the plate. Flaherty entered Saturday's game with a .296 average (8-for-27), but the catcher just didn't feel right, offensively.

He may have found something on Saturday, as he went 2-for-4 with a three-run home run against former Yankees left-hander C.J. Nitkowski in the sixth inning of New York's 5-3 victory.

"I haven't felt like I could drive the ball at all this spring," Flaherty said. "Maybe I'll get that thought out of my head."

Karsay strong: Steve Karsay had another solid outing on Saturday, his third of the week. The right-hander used just eight pitches to retire the side in order, and Torre believes that Karsay finally looks like he has his full confidence back.

"He's been getting the snap on the breaking ball, threw his splitter," Torre said. "He's got a good look on his face right now. He feels he's where everybody else is, and that's good news."

Flaherty said that Karsay's outing was his best of the spring.

"Karsay was great," Flaherty said. "Velocity, the break on his curveball, good splitters -- he's come a long way since the beginning of camp."

Sanchez out: Rey Sanchez underwent a precautionary MRI on his right thumb on Saturday, as he suffered a bruise while trying to field a ball at shortstop on Wednesday in Sarasota.

The MRI was negative, and Sanchez is listed as day-to-day. Sanchez made the trip to Clearwater on Friday, but didn't play after telling Torre that he was having trouble throwing.

"He seems to be getting better," Torre said. "That's a good sign."

Coming up: The Yankees return to Tampa on Sunday to take on the Houston Astros at Legends Field. Kevin Brown gets the start for the Yankees, and he will take on former New York ace Andy Pettitte.

Sunday will mark the first time Pettitte has ever faced the Yankees. The left-hander went 149-78 with New York from 1995-2003 before leaving for Houston via free agency after the 2003 season.