NEW YORK (AP) The Boston Red Sox won their first skirmish with the Evil Empire, putting aside curses and fatigue to burst ahead in the AL championship series.

David Ortiz, Todd Walker and Manny Ramirez homered off a shaky Mike Mussina, and the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 5-2 Wednesday night.

All the chants and signs reminding Boston of its 85-year title drought only seemed to spur on the Red Sox against their old rivals, who have dominated their Northeast neighbors for decades.

Tim Wakefield befuddled New York with his knuckleball, taking a 5-0 lead into the seventh before he got wild. Three relievers from Boston’s beleaguered bullpen completed the three-hitter.

After traveling from Boston to Oakland on Sunday night, then winning Game 5 on Monday night and flying back across the country, the Red Sox seemed bleary eyed when they arrived at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. But when it came time to play, they had the energy and emotion, not New York, which had been off since winning its first-round series at Minnesota on Sunday.

Ever since December, when Boston president Larry Lucchino called the Yankees the “Evil Empire,” the Red Sox have played off imagery from “Star Wars,” painting themselves as white knights trying to knock off the 26-time World Series champions.

Following their stunning comeback from a 2-0 deficit against the Athletics, Lucchino even predicted Tuesday that the Red Sox, who haven’t won the Series since trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920 – supposedly bringing on The Curse – would have The Force on their side.

Yankees fans kept reminding the Red Sox of their title drought, screaming “1918,” but the reminder just seemed to fuel the Red Sox, who flashed their power and rapped out 13 hits, including four by Ramirez, who grew up close to Yankee Stadium.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night with Derek Lowe of Boston facing New York’s Andy Pettitte.

Boston, which finished second to New York in the AL East for the sixth straight season, had dropped 12 of its previous 13 games in the ALCS since its last World Series appearance in 1986, including a 4-1 loss to the Yankees in the 1999 LCS.

But the Red Sox struck back on the 47th anniversary of one of the most famous games in baseball and Yankee Stadium history – Don Larsen’s perfect game against Brooklyn in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

Mussina, pitching on seven days’ rest since losing the first-round opener against Minnesota, wasn’t sharp at all, allowing three homers in a game for only the second time this year