Johnny Damon hit a tie-breaking homer against his former team and Andy Pettitte won his sixth straight start, halting another Yankees slide in New York’s 5–3 victory over the Boston Red Sox last night.

Derek Jeter also homered and Jorge Posada hit an RBI double for the Yankees, who took the opener of a three-game series in the first meeting between the rivals since June 3.

Boston came to town with an eight-game lead over New York in the AL East and a chance to open a nearly insurmountable cushion. But the Yankees beat Daisuke Matsuzaka for the first time and rebounded from a 2–5 trip that ended Monday night with a 16–0 loss at Detroit.

Pettitte (12–7) played stopper once again. He allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings, improving to 8-1 in 10 starts since the All-Star break. His last three wins have followed New York defeats, making him 69–33 in such situations with the Yankees.

Manny Ramirez and Jason Varitek homered for the Red Sox, who had won four straight — all blowouts at the Chicago White Sox.

After making an error in the sixth, Ramirez was lifted in the bottom of the seventh because of muscle spasms in his lower back. He was replaced by Bobby Kielty, who was removed in the eighth due to a sore lower back.

Pettitte improved to 6–0 this month, making him 45–16 in August during his career. He also upped his record against Boston to 15–6.

Joba Chamberlain worked a scoreless eighth with two strikeouts and hit 100 mph on the radar gun. With two on, the rookie sensation struck out J.D. Drew on a nasty slider to end the inning and let out a fired-up scream as he pumped his fist.

Mariano Rivera struck out two in the ninth for his 21st save – his first 1-2-3 outing in eight innings since Aug. 10.

Matsuzaka (13–11) lost his third consecutive start, allowing five runs and six hits in 6.1 innings. The famous rookie from Japan won both of his previous starts against New York this year despite a 6.92 ERA.

With the score tied at 3, Andy Phillips singled leading off the seventh and moved up on Melky Cabrera’s sacrifice. Damon lofted Matsuzaka’s next pitch into the right-field corner, just beyond the short porch and barely fair.

Damon popped out of the dugout for a curtain call to the delight of a sellout crowd of 55,037 that included Tiger Woods. Damon is batting .350 since July 21.

Varitek’s leadoff shot in the top of the seventh tied it at 3. He hit a high fly into the left-field stands, just beyond a leaping Damon.

Matsuzaka retired 12 of 13 batters before Jeter’s solo home run in the fifth gave New York a 3–2 lead. Jeter had gone 87 at-bats without a homer since connecting August 1 against the White Sox.

Ramirez hit a leadoff shot in the second, making him the 12th player in major league history to hit at least 20 homers in 13 straight seasons. He has 52 home runs against the Yankees, tied with Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski for fourth-most by a New York opponent.