CLEVELAND -- Andy Pettitte paced nervously through the visitors' clubhouse at Jacobs Field late Sunday afternoon.

A three-run ninth inning lead set up by Pettitte's masterpiece hung perilously in the hands of Mariano Rivera. The Yankees' closer had allowed the inning's first three hitters to reach base, and now the tying run was in scoring position with nobody out.

"It was tough to watch," Pettitte said. "When they got a couple runners on, I started going to the restroom. I didn't want to see it. I was walking around, somewhere where I couldn't see it."

Solace came in the fact that the game was still entrusted in the hands of a likely future Hall of Famer.

"Who would you rather have out there than Rivera?" Pettitte said.

The answer fast became evident as Rivera struck out the next two hitters and induced a weak Casey Blake flyout to give the Yankees a tension-filled 5-3 victory over the Indians.

The late scare was about the only thing that didn't come easy on a weekend New York mercilessly swept through Cleveland. In the first test of a critical three week stretch that finds the Yankees playing 17 games against playoff-contending clubs, baseball's hottest team -- the Yankees are 23-8 since the All-Star break -- passed with resounding marks.

"Just another great win for us," Pettitte said. "How can you not feel good about the way [we're] playing?"

The win pushed the Yankees to 15 games over .500 (66-51) for the first time this season, kept New York tied atop the American League Wild Card race and, most importantly, perhaps sent a jolt through Beantown.

After the Red Sox fell in Baltimore on Sunday, the Yankees are now only four games behind first-place Boston. The Bombers haven't been so close to the Red Sox since April 24.

Sunday's modus operandi was different than most in this brilliant stretch. The Yankees didn't simply bludgeon the Tribe early Sunday.

Jason Giambi, making just his second start since coming off the disabled list, went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer into the right-field stands in the fourth inning off Jake Westbrook. And Melky Cabrera added a solo shot that extended his career-high hitting streak to 17 games.

But for the first time this weekend, the Yankees actually needed the solid pitching they received.

Pettitte held the Tribe to just two runs on seven hits over 7 1/3 innings in winning for the fifth time in his last seven starts.

The left-hander used his offspeed pitches to keep Cleveland's struggling bats flailing foolishly all day. And when it mattered most, Pettitte was at his best.

For instance, he allowed a pair of singles and a walk to open the seventh inning. But with the bases loaded and nobody out, Pettitte went to work. The left-hander picked off Jhonny Peralta at first base and got Jason Michaels to hit a sacrifice fly before inducing an inning-ending grounder from Chris Gomez.

"Andy was great today," manager Joe Torre said. "He was really terrific."

Like Mike Mussina, Pettitte looks to have fully returned to old form after an inconsistent midseason stretch. Sunday marked Pettitte's seventh straight solid start.

"When you've done it for a number of years, you know it's in there somewhere," Torre said.

Which may begin to explain why the Yankees remained so confident in Rivera in the ninth.

No matter that Rivera, summoned in the eighth to record the final out, started the final inning by consecutively allowing a pair of singles and a run-scoring double to Franklin Gutierrez. When Torre visited his closer -- pitching coach Ron Guidry had been tossed an inning earlier for arguing balls and strikes -- Rivera said he was fine.

"And once he told me that," Torre said, "he showed me he was OK."

Indeed. Rivera blew away Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore on strikes before retiring Blake.

"Sometimes things don't go your way," Rivera said. "You have to pitch a little harder."

So Pettitte can breathe a little easier.