St. Petersburg, FL (My Sportsbook) - Bobby Abreu homered and finished with three runs batted in to lead the New York Yankees to a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the opener of a four-game series at Tropicana Field.

Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter also homered for the Yankees, who commenced the second half of the season with their fourth win in the last five games and in the process crept back up to the .500 mark (43-43). New York sits 10 games behind Boston, which also won on Thursday, in the AL East.

"It was a good win for us and we played aggressively," said Yankees manager Joe Torre. "I feel good about our club - we played a clean game."

Andy Pettitte started on the hill and earned the victory after he allowed three runs on six hits with four strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings. Pettitte (5-6) bounced back and delivered a decent outing after struggling mightily over his last four starts (0-2, 10.18 ERA).

"It was a win, so I feel better about it," Pettitte said. "I still got into some jams, but we got out of it. I felt decent with all my stuff. Wins are good, and I felt there were some positives out there."

Brandon Harris scored twice for the Devil Rays, who have the worst record in the majors and, after this setback, have now dropped 14 of their last 15 games overall.

James Shields (7-5) surrendered six runs -- five earned -- and nine hits through six innings of work with one walk and two strikeouts.

After the Yankees opened the scoring in the second inning on an RBI double by Abreu, the hosts tied the score in the home third when Josh Wilson answered with a run-scoring double of his own.

The top of the fourth inning saw three different Yankee batters hit solo home runs. Jeter led off the frame with his sixth homer of the year and Rodriguez followed with his MLB-leading 31st. After Hideki Matsui fanned and Jorge Posada grounded out, Abreu turned on a fastball and belted his sixth home run of 2007 over the wall in center field for a 4-1 New York lead.

Tampa Bay had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the stanza, but only mustered one run via Jonny Gomes' sacrifice fly.

The Yanks then added a run in the fifth. Andy Phillips singled leading off and Johnny Damon blooped a base hit into shallow left before Melky Cabrera reached safely on a throwing error by Shields. Jeter then grounded into a double play -- his second of the game -- but Phillips scored from third. Rodriguez fouled out to end the inning.

A defensive miscue by Tampa in the top of the sixth led to New York's sixth run. Matsui lifted a very high pop fly into shallow right field that should have been easily caught, but second baseman Wilson and right fielder Gomes miscommunicated and the ball hit the turf. Matsui, running hard on the play, landed on second base and scored when Posada followed with a hard, low line drive down the first-base line.

The Devil Rays cut their deficit to 6-3 in the bottom of the sixth. Harris led off with a single, moved to third on a one-out base hit by Delmon Young and scored on a sac fly by Ty Wigginton.

The scoring was capped in the eighth when Abreu singled home Rodriguez.

"He knows he's important," said Torre of Abreu. "He looks comfortable at the plate. Our (success in the second half of the season) depends on how well our left-handed hitters do at the plate."

Kyle Farnsworth replaced Luis Vizcaino and started the bottom of the eighth. Farnsworth issued a leadoff walk to Carl Crawford, but eventually escaped a minor jam with an inning-ending strikeout of Wigginton with runners on first and second.

Mariano Rivera struck out two in a perfect ninth to end the game.

Game Notes

Pettitte improved to 12-1 in 18 career starts versus Tampa Bay...The homer for Rodriguez was the 495th of his career. He also leads the majors in RBI (87)...The expected pitching matchup on Friday will feature Roger Clemens versus Tampa's young lefty Scott Kazmir...New York outhit Tampa Bay, 10-7...This marked the third time this season that the Yankees have hit back- to-back home runs -- all three times have included one by Rodriguez...Attendance was 21,907.