"Get ready to embrace the recipe the Yankees used yesterday to punish the reeling Red Sox.

You appreciate victories fueled by pitching? This pew isn't for you. But those who receive pleasure from hitting festivals, get comfortable, because the Yankees' muscle frequently will be asked to rescue a suspect rotation.

On a perfect Fenway Park day, Ivan Nova required a life jacket to avoid drowning. Thanks to Russell Martin, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and Eric Chavez, however, Nova didn't sink before the Yankees posted a 9-4 victory that was witnessed by 37,488 and played under a brilliant blue sky and a first-pitch temperature of 57 degrees.

Martin homered twice and drove in four runs. Cano and Granderson each went deep once. And in his first start of the season Chavez went 3-for-5 and drove in a run as the designated hitter.

"Some days you have to do that," manager Joe Girardi said of the slugfest. "It's not what you want to do on a daily basis, but our lineup can put up big numbers and today we needed it."

The victory, which went to David Robertson, hiked the Yankees' ledger to 5-3. The frigid Red Sox are 1-7 after Clay Buchholz (0-2) was rocked for five runs (four earned) and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.

Nova pitched in and out of trouble in the first two frames, when he stranded a total of four runners and held the Red Sox without a hit in four at-bats with runners in scoring position. He gave up a run in the third, three in the fourth when Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano failed to turn an inning-ending double play, and didn't finish the fifth.

"They have a really good lineup but I don't think it's too hard," Nova said. "When you throw strikes and you make your pitches you can get anybody out. That was something I didn't do today and I think that's the problem."

In 4 1/3 innings, Nova allowed four runs and seven hits and walked three."