NEW YORK — Pedro Martinez, who often has thrived on being the pitcher New York Yankees fans love to hate whether he pitched for Boston or the New York Mets, made his first World Series start for the Philadelphia Phillies Thursday night.

"I might be at times the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium," Martinez had said bluntly the night before the game. And, for most of the night in Game 2 of the 105th World Series, Martinez was the Pedro of old, before shoulder problems began to nip at his abilities.

Mixing a slow, then slower breaking ball with a fastball that was good enough and a changeup that was baffling, Martinez gave up only four hits, albeit two of them homers, over the first six innings and struck out eight before he came out in the seventh.

But Martinez was matched and then some by Yankees righthander A.J. Burnett, winless in three previous postseason starts but dominant on Thursday.

Burnett, seemingly throwing twice as hard as Martinez and sporting a nasty curveball, fanned nine over seven innings before turning the game over to Mariano Rivera for the last two innings. And the Yankees made solo homers by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui and a run-scoring single by pinch-hitter Jorge Posada stand up for a 3-1 win that sent the Series to Philadelphia at 1-1 for Game 3 on Saturday night.

The Yankees are deadlocked despite scoring just three earned runs in the first two games and having only one hit with a man in scoring position.

But Burnett didn't need much Thursday.

"I wanted to set the tone early and be aggressive," said Burnett, who, as a Florida Marlin, had to watch the 2003 World Series after having elbow surgery. "The game just rolled by. I was in a good rhythm."

The Phillies jumped ahead for the second time in two nights with a run in the second. Raul Ibanez sliced a ground-rule double and Matt Stairs then shot a single to the left of third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who could have made the play.

Burnett kept the game close in the third when the Phillies had a chance to stretch their lead.

Chase Utley was walked intentionally after the count ran to 3-0 to put runners on first and second with two out. That put it in Ryan Howard's lap and the St. Louisan fanned for the second time in a dreadful night of four straight punchouts. Howard has fanned 14 times in 40 postseason at-bats, yet still is hitting .320.

In the Phillies' fourth, Yankees catcher Jose Molina pulled off a play his younger brother, Yadier, has executed more than 30 times in his career with the Cardinals. After Jayson Werth had singled to open the inning, Molina picked Werth off first base as the Phils' runner tried to return standing up.

With this momentum shift, Teixeira, who had only two extra-base hits and was batting .182 in the postseason, tied the game with a homer to right-center leading off the Yankees' fourth.

"I saw a (1-0) pitch up in the zone and I let it fly," said Teixeira. "It's a terrible cliché. But it was a must win. If we had gone in there 0-2, it would have been a tough road for us."

After fanning the first two hitters in the Yankees' sixth, Martinez got ahead of Matsui with two quick strikes but at 1-2, Matsui golfed a low breaking ball over the right-field wall for the Yankees' first lead of the Series and the Yankee Stadium fans resumed their chants of "Who's Your Daddy?" in retort to a famous Martinez quote from the past.

"When I made a couple of mistakes, I paid for it," said Martinez.

After allowing singles to Jerry Hairston Jr., and Melky Cabrera — the latter a hit-and-run variety — Martinez, who said he hadn't felt well before the game, exited in the seventh for Chan Ho Park. Posada then delivered the Yankees' first hit with a man in scoring position in the Series, singling to center.

The inning ended in bizarre fashion with a double-play call that went against the Yankees for the second night in succession. With runners at first and second and one out, Johnny Damon lined a ball toward first baseman Howard, who scooped it and then started to run to first before straightening and firing wide of second where shortstop Jimmy Rollins made the reception.

But instead of the bases loaded and one out, the inning was over because first-base umpire Brian Gorman determined that Howard had caught the ball on the fly — he may not have — and then Rollins had tagged Posada, the runner from first who was standing on second when he thought Damon's ball had bounced.

As on Wednesday night, all six umpires conferred and Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who had objected, went away unhappy.

Rivera got into a spot of trouble in the eighth when he walked Rollins with one out and Shane Victorino singled to right. But, on a full-count pitch, Utley grounded sharply to second baseman Robinson Cano, who started a double play pivoted by shortstop Derek Jeter, who had to withstand Victorino bearing down on him to complete the play.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, asked why he didn't start the runners with Utley up, said, "Utley doesn't hit into too many ground-ball double plays. I bet it's less than five. (It was five.) I didn't want Utley to hit into a line-drive double play. I want Howard hitting in the inning.

"And I'll tell you something else. Utley was safe. I'm not going to say anything about the umpiring. I'm just going to say that he was safe."

Pressed on the umpiring, in general, Manuel said, "You know. I probably never thought the umpiring was good, if you want to know the truth."