Yankees' golden oldies

Pettitte pitched the Yankees to their first win of the year and Rivera made a successful return to the mound in New York's 4-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

"I was waiting for 11 months," said Rivera, who acknowledged feeling a little anxious before his first regular-season pitch since knee surgery. "There were a lot of emotions tonight, but you have to control that. You have to finish the game."

Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli homered for the Yankees, providing some unexpected power to a depleted lineup missing the "sore four" - Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson.

All those All-Stars are on the disabled list, plus pitcher Phil Hughes, and without them New York dropped its first two games to the rival Red Sox.

"You don't want to leave your home park going 0-3, that's for sure," manager Joe Girardi said. "So I thought it was pretty important."

Lyle Overbay had a two-run single off Ryan Dempster (0-1), who struck out eight in his Boston debut but needed 101 pitches to get through five innings.

"Just got outpitched by the guy on the other side of the field," Dempster said. "I made a lot of good pitches and a couple balls fell in. That was enough to win the game."

Looking for their first season-opening sweep at Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox were handcuffed by a pair of New York greats.

Pettitte, 40, (1-0) tossed eight sharp innings on a 43-degree night and Rivera entered to a standing ovation from those left in the bundled-up crowd of 40,611 as the familiar chords of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" blared out in the Yankee Stadium speakers.

Rivera issued a leadoff walk to Dustin Pedroia and gave up a one-out double to Jonny Gomes before Will Middlebrooks drove in a run with a groundout. But the righthander threw a called third strike past rookie Jackie Bradley Jr. for his 609th save.

It was the 69th time Rivera has saved a regular-season win by Pettitte, a major league record.

"These two have been doing it a long time together," Girardi said. "I've caught both of them and I've managed both of them, but as a fan it's really kind of neat to see."

In other AL games * 

At Minneapolis, Mike Pelfrey pitched into the sixth inning in his Minnesota debut, Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe hit home runs and the Twins took the season-opening series from the Detroit Tigers with an 8-2 victory.

In Tigers news, former closer Jose Valverde agreed to terms on a minor league contract. Valverde, 35, will report to Detroit's spring-training facility in Lakeland, Fla., before being assigned to Triple A Toledo.

* At Chicago, Jeremy Guthrie struck out nine and gave up one run in six innings, and the Kansas City Royals snapped a two-game losing streak to start the season, beating the White Sox, 3-1.

* At Oakland, Josh Reddick and Yoenis Cespedes gave Brandon Maurer a rude welcome to the big leagues by hitting two-run homers off the Seattle rookie that led the Athletics to an 8-2 victory over the Mariners.

* At St. Petersburg, Fla., Chris Davis homered for the third straight day and drove in four runs to lead Baltimore to a 6-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

* At Toronto, the Blue Jays hit four home runs off Cleveland starter Brett Myers, including two by catcher J.P. Arencibia, to avoid a series sweep in a 10-8 victory over the Indians.

In Indians news, lefthander Scott Kazmir was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained ribcage muscle.

In NL games * 

At New York, Jedd Gyorko doubled in the go-ahead run in the fourth inning for his first major league RBI, and the San Diego Padres beat the Mets, 2-1, for their first win of the season.

* At Pittsburgh, Travis Wood allowed one hit over six innings and the Chicago Cubs held off the Pirates, 3-2.

* At Washington, righthander Jordan Zimmermann worked around eight hits over six innings, Ryan Zimmerman's three hits included a two-run double, and the Nationals beat the Miami Marlins, 6-1, for a season-opening three-game sweep.

Jayson Werth tacked on a three-run homer in the seventh, and Bryce Harper had another eventful day, collecting two hits, taking an elbow to the face while scoring a run, and getting thrown out trying to steal third.

In interleague play * 

At Cincinnati, Shin-Soo Choo homered on Joe Blanton's first pitch of the game, the first of the Reds' three homers off the righthander in a 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.