NEW YORK -- Andy Pettitte's eyes grew wide as he kicked his left leg, stutter-stepped and tossed to second base, cutting short Jose Reyes' dancing and the thoughts of larceny running through his mind.

The left-hander may not be quick to home plate, but owning one of the Major League's best pickoff moves makes up for the difference. It also helped kill a fifth-inning rally on Saturday at Shea Stadium, where Pettitte's Yankees nipped the Mets, 3-2, in the Subway Series.

"That's huge," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "That might have been the turning point of the game."

On an afternoon when Pettitte was to lock heads with Johan Santana, the Yankees would take every advantage they could get. Pettitte said catcher Jorge Posada spotted Reyes hopping around too aggressively as Pettitte prepared to work on David Wright.

With Wright swinging the bat well, Pettitte gladly accepted the suggestion, timing his throw with Robinson Cano and hitting the second baseman with seconds to spare. Reyes laid on the infield dirt for an extra moment, while Pettitte pumped his fist and screamed.

"There's no doubt that's a big part of the game for me," Pettitte said. "Especially right now looking at their lineup, [Wright] is a guy that you worry about for sure. He seems, to me, to be swinging the bat extremely well right now."

Said Reyes: "It's over. ... He threw me out in that situation. I should have stayed there, but that happened. That's part of the game. There's nothing I can do about it now."

In the bullpen, hours away from nailing down his 22nd save in 22 opportunities, closer Mariano Rivera applauded.

"I've seen that many, many times," Rivera said. "It doesn't surprise me. That's why he's one of the best."

The play proved fortunate, because an inning later and following a torrential 53-minute rain delay, Wright took Pettitte deep over the left-field wall for his 15th home run. Stalking behind the mound, Pettitte tried to regroup.

"You're out here and you've got the lead," Pettitte said he told himself.

"Just stay focused and try to make pitches. I was tired mentally, so more than anything, I just wanted to stay within myself and not try to overthrow."

It was the second of two solo shots that Pettitte surrendered, also serving one up to Ramon Castro in the second inning, but that and three other hits were all he'd allow, walking three and striking out five to improve to 4-0 in his past four starts.

The pairing of Pettitte, a longtime Yankee, and Santana -- who could have become one in an alternate offseason plan -- wielded an unimpressive total of seven walks (one intentional by Santana), but both hurlers kept their clubs in the game.

Santana threw 113 pitches over six innings before turning it over to the bullpen. After three sharp frames, Santana ran into trouble in the fourth, issuing walks to the first two Yankees in the inning.

Mets manager Jerry Manuel came out for a mound visit that had as much to do with speaking to home-plate umpire Mike Everitt as it did with Santana, and he left clapping his hands.

The chat did little: Alex Rodriguez singled to left, loading the bases for Jason Giambi's RBI groundout up the middle, past a sprawling Santana, and Posada's sacrifice fly to deep center.

"[Santana's] stuff was great today," Girardi said. "In the fourth inning, we put some tough at-bats on him and got his pitch count up. I thought the at-bats were great. I thought we made him work hard. After watching him the first two innings, he looked really good, and our guys stuck with it."

With rain falling moderately, the Yankees next caught a break in the sixth inning, as Santana balked on a pickoff throw to first base -- a play spotted by bench coach Rob Thomson, who let out an immediate cry in the Yankees' dugout.

Instead of heading back to the bench, Rodriguez was waved to take second base. Two batters later, Cano came through with an RBI single to right that scored the Yankees' third run -- the difference in the game -- before play was halted between innings.

"I thought there was something weird about the play, because I had read him pretty good," Rodriguez said.

Pettitte scowled when the grounds crew laid the tarp out for the second time in the afternoon, knowing that his chances of going deeper into the game may have been fading. During the delay, he walked into Girardi's office.

"I don't know when the tarp is coming off, but I need to go out there and throw a bullpen [session]," Pettitte told Girardi.

So Pettitte trudged down the long, circular tunnel to the left-field bullpen, where he threw for five minutes, sat for 10 minutes and then tossed for a few more. In the box score, Pettitte hurled six innings, but in Girardi's mind, he threw seven, allowing the Yankees to set up their bullpen for a three-arm sequence to victory.

With the Mets scraping for a run to tie, Jose Veras pitched around a single in the seventh before Kyle Farnsworth and Rivera retired the last six hitters in order -- Farnsworth with two loud outfield outs, and Rivera in his usual silent style.

For Rivera, the save was the 54th he has logged in a game where Pettitte was the winning pitcher, the second-best tag team in baseball history. With their next collaboration, Rivera will equal Dennis Eckersley and Bob Welch for the all-time lead.

"He's just great," Pettitte said. "You can't say enough about what he's done -- how easy he makes it look. It's not that easy. He's just incredible. I'm very fortunate to have him close for me."