Blast from their past

In a 5-3 win over the Red Sox last night, the Yankees stuck to the business at hand, no one more so than Johnny Damon, who knows something about playing in the moment. Damon was in the middle of it all in 2004 when the Sox faced seemingly hopeless odds against the Bombers and became the first team in history to recover from an 0-3 playoff deficit to win the AL Championship Series.

Damon hit a two-run home run in the seventh off Daisuke Matsuzaka to break a 3-all tie, and later deflected every invitation to send a verbal tweak toward the team that let him go, even after being apprised that Sox owners John W. Henry and Larry Lucchino were in the house, along with general manager Theo Epstein.

"I didn't even know John Henry was here," Damon said after the Yankees trimmed a game off the Sox' lead, which stands at seven with 30 to play.

Damon's home run set the stage for the Sox to get their first up-close-and-personal look at Joba Chamberlain, the rookie phenom who, after dispatching the Sox in the eighth, has not allowed a run in his first eight major league appearances, striking out 17 in 10 innings with a fastball that regularly registers in the high 90s.

Chamberlain did not have to face Manny Ramírez, who hit his 20th home run of the season off Andy Pettitte in the second inning for Boston's first run but was gone when Chamberlain started the eighth, having been removed an inning earlier because of back spasms.

"I'm not a fan of losing him for a couple of weeks," said Sox manager Terry Francona, who had given Ramírez a day off Sunday in Chicago because he'd had some back tightness.

Bobby Kielty played left field in the seventh but was lifted for a pinch-hitter, Eric Hinske, with one on and one out in the eighth because his back also gave out, the result of his collision with the low bullpen wall in his first game with the Sox 10 days ago.

Chamberlain blew a 99-mile-an-hour fastball past Hinske, then put him away with a nasty slider.

"The first pitch he threw was a curve for a strike," Hinske said. "The next pitch was outside but it was called a strike. I'm 0 and 2, and there's nothing you can do.