NEW YORK - Tim Wakefield's knuckleball fluttered by the New York Yankees, and home runs by David Ortiz, Todd Walker and Manny Ramirez soared over their heads.

Pitching and power led the Boston Red Sox to a 5-2 victory in the opener of the AL championship series Wednesday night, putting aside all that talk of curses and evil empires.

Instead, the focus was on Wakefield's dancing deliveries and the umpires - New York's Mike Mussina thought he was being squeezed by Tim McClelland, who also reversed a call and awarded Walker a disputed home run.

''I think we're still running on adrenaline now,'' said Wakefield, thinking back on a five-day span that had seen Boston overcome a 2-0 first-round deficit to beat Oakland, make a pair of cross-country flights and open the ALCS with a big win against its dominating and domineering Northeast neighbor.

The Yankees were off-kilter from the start - even the bald eagle Challenger went off course, causing manager Joe Torre to duck as the bird circled the infield during the pregame ceremonies. It was an early sign of a fowl night for New York.

Wakefield then befuddled the batters with his knuckler, taking a five-run lead into the seventh before he got wild. Boston's beleaguered bullpen completed the three-hitter.

''He had a good one,'' the Yankees' Derek Jeter said. ''Nobody knew where it was going.''

Ortiz, who had been 0-for-20 against Mussina, started Boston's offense with a two-run upper-deck homer in the fourth. Walker and Ramirez added solo shots in the fifth.

''When they get a good pitch, they hit it hard,'' Mussina said. ''They have a lot of guys who hit .320.''

After traveling from Boston to Oakland on Sunday, then winning Game 5 on Monday night and flying back across the country, the Red Sox seemed bleary-eyed when they arrived Tuesday. But when it came time to play, they had the energy and emotion, not New York, which had been off since finishing off Minnesota on Sunday.

Wakefield retired 14 straight batters starting in the second. After the game, he was ready to crash.

''I told all my friends don't call me because I'm going to be sleeping in,'' he said.

Derek Lowe tries to make it 2-0 Thursday night when he pitches Game 2 of the best-of-seven series against New York's Andy Pettitte.

''Our pitching is our strength and, hopefully tomorrow, Andy will get us back even,'' Torre said. ''We put him in that situation many times and he's come up big for us.''

With another win, Boston would be giddy by the time Game 3 starts Saturday at Fenway Park. These teams have been going at each other since December, when the Yankees beat out the Red Sox to sign Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras and Boston president Larry Lucchino called George Steinbrenner's team the ''Evil Empire.''

After all, the Yankees have won the World Series 26 times since 1918, the last time Boston took home the title. The strong-throated New York fans repeatedly reminded the Red Sox of that, taunting with shouts of ''1918.''

Boston responded with big bats: The Red Sox rapped out 13 hits, including four by Ramirez, who grew up close to Yankee Stadium. And the Red Sox did it on the 47th anniversary of one of the most famous games in the ballpark's history - Don Larsen's perfect game against Brooklyn in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

Walker's homer was one of those wacky plays that seem to occur at Yankee Stadium every October. While right-field umpire Angel Hernandez signaled the drive was foul, he was immediately overruled by McClelland - also behind the plate 20 years ago when he took a home run away from George Brett, a call later reversed by AL president Lee MacPhail.

Josh, an 18-year-old from Fair Lawn, N.J., who refused to give his last name, said he reached out for the ball and it hit his right palm, dropping straight down without hitting the foul pole.

''It was a foul ball by at least 6 inches,'' he said.

Replays appeared to show it hit the pole. Torre came out to speak to the umps but couldn't change their minds, and Walker had his fourth postseason homer - nearly one-third of his regular-season total of 13.

''I don't think I can explain it,'' he said. ''And I don't think I want to.''

Kevin Millar added an RBI single off Jeff Nelson in the seventh, New York scored twice in the bottom half on Jorge Posada's RBI double and Hideki Matsui's sacrifice fly off Alan Embree. Mike Timlin and Scott Williamson finished, with Williamson getting the save.

Jeter already was looking forward to Thursday.

''It's a short series and we have to come back out here tomorrow and get back in it,'' he said.