After the Red Sox left the bases loaded in the first inning and the Yankees scored twice in their first at-bat, Tim Wakefield's start was flashing "uh-oh" warning signals before the seats at Yankee Stadium had even been filled.

But by the end of last night, Wakefield and the team crawled out of their hole and held on for a satisfying 5-3 victory.

For Wakefield (3-4), victimized by poor run support and overshadowed by turnover in his personal catcher's position this season, his third win in eight starts was as well-deservedas it was hard-earned.

"I just battled my way to the end of the sixth inning," said the right-hander, who struck out a season-high nine batters, walked three, allowed six hits and gave up three runs over six frames. "My job as a starter is to stay in the game for as long as possible, and tonight I was able to give the team six innings. It was one of those games where we just battled our way through nine innings, and we were able to come out on top."

Before the game, Sox manager Terry Francona heard from Wakefield and his catcher, Doug Mirabelli, that the starter had "maybe his best knuckleball of the year - maybe it was too good," Francona said. "He had a tough time early, keeping it in the zone."

Wakefield struck out Johnny Damon looking to lead off the first but a single and two walks loaded the bases for Jorge Posada. The Yanks catcher sent a hard grounder through Wakefield's legs and into center field, scoring two runs.

"My ball was moving so much in that first inning, I had problems throwing it for strikes," said Wakefield, who admitted to feeling tired as he battles a bug.

Mirabelli took responsibility for slowing down Wakefield's rhythm when he dropped several balls in the strike zone.

"We talked about picking up the pace after the first, that's what we focused on for the rest of the game," Mirabelli said.

The speed-up plan obviously worked.

"He threw the ball well," Mirabelli said.

Wakefield hit just one more rough patch, allowing Derek Jeter's RBI single in the fourth. Outside of that, he was able to control the flight of his knuckleball to keep the batters on the defensive.

A one-out triple by Bubba Crosby in the second preceded some of Wakefield's finest work, in which he retired Damon and Jeter on line-outs to escape the jam.

Wakefield's win broke a string of six consecutive winless starts against the Yankees.