Game of the Day | Clemens takes no-hitter into 6th in Yankees win

NEW YORK — More than a decade after bolting from Boston, Roger Clemens left the Red Sox scratching their heads.

The Rocket shut down his original team, allowing two hits and outpitching an ace 18 years younger than him in the New York Yankees' 4-3 victory over the Red Sox on Wednesday night.

"I was trying to be as stingy as possible," Clemens said. "It's going to be a grind for me. I'm asking my body to be 25 right now."

Alex Rodriguez hit his major-league-leading 44th home run and the Yankees got another big hit from Johnny Damon to earn their second consecutive win in the series. New York trimmed Boston's cushion to six games in the American League East and moved within a percentage point of the Mariners for the wild-card lead.

"It's nice when things matter," Clemens said. "We've still got a lot of work to do."

Josh Beckett was tagged for a career-high 13 hits by the Yankees, who turned to Mariano Rivera in the eighth inning for a four-out save.

Clemens (6-5) held the Red Sox hitless until David Ortiz's upper-deck homer with one out in the sixth. He worked around a season-high five walks and improved to 9-5 with a 3.73 earned-run average in his career against Boston, a team he last faced in Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series.

"Nothing around the plate to hit, always on the corners, changed speeds pretty well," Boston's Dustin Pedroia said. "We had guys on, we just didn't get the big hit."

The Yankees tied the season series 7-all after losing the first four meetings. The teams play four more times this year, including this afternoon. New York will go for a series sweep when 15-game winner Chien-Ming Wang faces Boston's Curt Schilling.

"Everything's in our grasp — the wild card and the division," Yankees reliever Kyle Farnsworth said.

Kevin Youkilis also homered for the Red Sox, who played without injured star Manny Ramirez. The slugger sat out with a strained muscle on his left side and probably will be sidelined for several days.

"I don't know. Maybe a week?" Ramirez said.

Youkilis' two-run shot off Farnsworth in the eighth cut it to 4-3. Rivera entered with a runner on first and got four straight outs for his 22nd save in 25 chances. It was his second in two nights against Boston, often a personal nemesis.

The 45-year-old Clemens, who earned 192 of his 354 career wins with Boston from 1984 to 1996, struck out two and improved to 3-0 in his last four starts.

"It's still fun for him," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "It's a piece of history you're watching out there."