(Sports Network) - Ian Kennedy draws a tough starting assignment in his return to the majors tonight, as he leads the New York Yankees in the opener of a three-game set with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the club with the best record in the majors.

These squads just met last weekend in New York, splitting four games and leading to tonight's rematch at Angel Stadium. The Angels won the season series last year, winning six of nine.

Kennedy joins New York's rotation in place of the injured Joba Chamberlain, who landed on the disabled list Wednesday due to right rotator cuff tendinitis. Dan Giese was slated to pitch tonight's opener, but has been pushed back until Saturday.

Kennedy hasn't pitched for the Yankees since May 27, when he allowed four runs (3 earned) over three innings while not factoring into the decision of his club's 10-9 loss to Baltimore. The right-hander is 0-3 with a 7.41 earned run average in nine games (8 starts) with New York this year and faces the Angels for the first time in his career.

Kennedy, though, has regained his touch with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, going 4-2 with a 2.14 ERA in nine games, all but one starts, with the club. He was 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA over his previous four starts before being recalled.

After splitting their series with the Angels, the Yankees headed to Texas to start a 10-game road trip and split another four-game series with the Rangers. New York lost the first two tests of the set before rebounding and securing the split with a 3-0 win last night. That win has New York 5 1/2 games back of front-running Tampa Bay in the American League East.

Mike Mussina hurled seven strong innings to notch his 15th win of the season, while New York also got a solo homer and two RBI out of Derek Jeter. Johnny Damon added another RBI in the win.

Bobby Abreu enjoyed a solid series versus the Angels last weekend, going 6- for-17 (.353) with two homers, five RBI and five runs scored, and also had a hit in each game against the Rangers to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. Abreu is hitting .395 (17-for-43) over the run and has also reached base safely in each of his last 22 games.

Jered Weaver will try to avenge a loss to New York in his last start for the Angels. The right-hander was hammered for six runs on eight hits over five innings on Saturday, allowing home runs to Wilson Betemit, Abreu, Jose Molina and Alex Rodriguez.

The setback dropped Weaver to 2-1 with a 5.63 ERA versus the Yankees and 9-9 with a 4.37 ERA in 22 starts overall this year. Weaver does have a 3.69 ERA in 10 home starts in 2008.

The Angels, who own the majors' best record at 71-43 and lead the AL West by 12 games over Texas, took two out of three against Baltimore, winning Wednesday's rubber match, 9-4. Ervin Santana was solid on the hill to record his 13th win of the season and Vladimir Guerrero hit a home run and finished with four runs driven in.

Jeff Mathis added a solo home run for the Angels, who have won seven of their last 10 and 16 of the last 21 games. Garret Anderson went 3-for-4 with two RBI and extended his hitting streak to 13 games in the process.

Anderson is hitting .442 (23-for-52) over his run with two homers and 13 RBI. He is a career .317 hitter versus the Yankees, smacking 14 homers with 78 RBI in 113 games against them. That includes a .444 (8-for-18) in four games against the Yanks this season.