Shawn Chacon was surrounded.

Everywhere the Yankees starter looked in the sixth inning yesterday, there were Toronto runners. New York’s two-run lead was hanging perilously in the balance, and on the Yankees bench, manager Joe Torre and his coaches considered their next move.

“I could have been persuaded to take him out,” Torre admitted. Instead, he stayed with the pitcher who was obtained last month from Colorado and plugged into a patchwork Yankees pitching staff.

Chacon paid back the confidence, retiring the next two hitters to preserve the lead in what became a 6-2 Yankees victory. Then he tacked on a 1-2-3 seventh before turning the game over to the bullpen.

And he did it without his best stuff.

“It was one of those days,” Chacon said. “The sixth inning was scary but we got through it. Today was a grind. I didn’t feel I had anything as far as command of my pitches.”

So he threw plenty of them – 119 through seven innings, 66 for strikes.

“Chacon battled,” Torre said. “He didn’t have his best command but he fought his way through. He’s not afraid to throw off-speed stuff. He had pitched so well to their 3-4 hitters, I felt secure sending him out for the seventh. He has a great variety of speeds. As long as he threw strikes, we didn’t worry about him being tired.”

Chacon improved to 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA with the Yankees after going 1-7 with a 4.09 ERA for Colorado. He has rescued a Yankees pitching staff torn apart by injury, winning three straight starts for the first time in more than two years.

“He’s been pitching well,” said Derek Jeter, who had three hits.

“Today, he scuffled more than he has in the past. He battled us out of a couple of jams.”

Jeter was part of a quick start for the Yankees, who used consecutive first-inning home runs by Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez for a 4-0 lead on just nine pitches by loser Gustavo Chacin (11-7).

Jeter singled on Chacin’s second pitch, and Hideki Matsui hit the next pitch up the middle for a single. Sheffield followed with a three-run homer on an 0-1 pitch for his 27th homer of the season. The home run ended an 0-for-12 slide for Sheffield and was the 442nd of his career, tying him with Dave Kingman for 30th place all-time.

Rodriguez followed with his 37th homer. It was his 22nd at Yankee Stadium this season, a record for a right-handed hitter. The old mark of 19 was set by Joe DiMaggio in 1937 and matched by Sheffield last season.

Toronto tried to battle back. Corey Koskie opened the second with a double and came around on a pair of infield outs. One inning later, the Blue Jays loaded the bases when Russ Adams walked, Frank Catalanotto singled, and Shea Hillenbrand was hit by a pitch. A four-pitch walk to Koskie forced home a run before Chacon struck out Gregg Zaun, ending the inning.

Toronto loaded the bases again in the sixth on a leadoff walk to Zaun and one-out singles by Eric Hinske and Orlando Hudson. Chacon then struck out Adams and retired Catalanotto on a fly ball.

“You’ve got a mess you made yourself,” Chacon said. “You’ve got to work out of it.”

Jorge Posada, who had three hits, opened the Yankees sixth with a double, and two outs later he scored on Jeter’s triple, his third hit of the game. Matsui then singled Jeter home, finishing Chacin.