" Mark Teixeira was maybe two hours removed from hitting his 300th career homer and he immediately tried to rain on his own parade.

"That's not a major milestone," said Teixeira, who launched his shot leading off the third inning in the Yankees ' 5-0 win over Milwaukee Thursday. "I'm not trying to downplay it, (but) it's not 500 or 600 or anything like that."

Not too far down the same side of the locker room you'll find Alex Rodriguez , he of the 626 career homers, sixth all-time. But considering Teixeira is just 31 years old, does he consider his 300th homer a significant accomplishment?

"Yes and no," Teixeira said. "This game is such a daily grind. It's so tough to think about big-picture things. Seeing what Alex did last year (hitting his 600th homer) and then saying, 'Oh man, I got 300, great,' it puts it in perspective. It makes you realize you got a long way to go."

Teixeira's homer off Brewers lefty Randy Wolf gave him the MLB lead at 25 and was his 97th homer as a Yankee. He has also passed Mickey Mantle for the most home runs by a switch-hitter through his first nine major league seasons. Mantle had 280."