NEW YORK (AP) -- Derek Jeter's private plane was worth the money.

The Yankees shortstop, who chartered his own flight in order to get to the game, went 3-for-4 with a steal and RBI single Saturday as New York beat the Boston Red Sox 8-3.

Jeter, who had been on the disabled list since May 11 because of a strained abdominal muscle, stopped an 0-for-14 slide, his longest since April 1997, with a third-inning single.

	Derek Jeter's third-inning single snapped an 0-14 slump. Jeter was 3-for-4 against the Red Sox.

Jeter spent his rehabilitation time at the Yankees' extended spring training base in Tampa, Fla., and played a minor league game there Friday night.

"It might have been a blessing in disguise to go to Tampa," Jeter said.

"I was doing everything wrong. My hands were in the wrong place, I was too far back in the box, I was lunging," he said.

His team also was floundering, losing nine of 13 games in his absence.

"When a star player is out for a long time, it's tough to cover for him," winning pitcher Mike Stanton (1-0) said.

The Yankees had planned to have Jeter take a commercial flight Saturday. Instead, he came back after the minor league game Friday night.

The Yankees will reimburse Jeter only for what the cost of a first-class commercial plane ticket would have been.

"I wanted him 100 percent before he came back," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "We talked in Detroit before we put him on the DL and I told him in order to help the team, he had to be honest."

After Jorge Posada's tiebreaking homer off John Wasdin (0-1) put the Yankees ahead 4-3 in a five-run sixth, Jeter added an RBI single and Paul O'Neill followed with a three-run homer off Tim Young.

Wasdin had relieved Red Sox starter Brian Rose with the score tied at 3 in the fifth after Rose gave up homers to Shane Spencer and Ricky Ledee.

"He kept us in that game," Red Sox manager Jimy Williams said of Rose. "Solo jobs (the homers), so we were still in it. Wasdin got hit."

New York won for just the fifth time in 12 games and again tied Boston for the AL East lead. The Yankees also avoided losing seven straight to Red Sox for the first time since Sept. 14, 1984, to April 24, 1985.

Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens face off in the series finale Sunday night.

Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra also returned. Garciaparra, on the DL since May 12 with a strained left hamstring, went 1-for-3.

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, who had been scheduled to start for New York, felt tightness in his upper back warming up before the game and was replaced by Jason Grimsley, who allowed three runs and five hits in five innings.

Hernandez is not expected to miss a start.

Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch was scratched for the second straight game because of a strained left forearm, an injury sustained last Sunday at Cleveland, but Torre said that he expects Knoblauch to play Sunday night.

In addition, there was a scare in the second inning when O'Neill turned his left ankle in the outfield. O'Neill stayed in the game and does not expect to miss any games.

Boston took a 3-0 lead in the third on John Valentin's second homer of the season, a wild pitch by Grimsley with Darren Lewis on third and a squeeze bunt by Trot Nixon.

O'Neill, who slipped and appeared to hurt a leg catching Garciaparra's fly to right in the second inning, had an RBI single in the third, and Spencer pulled the Yankees to 3-2 with a home run in the fourth.

Ledee tied it in the fifth with his third homer of the season, just his first at Yankee Stadium.

Rose gave up three runs and six hits in four-plus innings.

Game notes
The four homers by the Yankees matched their season high. ... Valentin had not homered since April 5 at Seattle off Frankie Rodriguez. ... Coming in, Rose had a 1.69 ERA when he retired his first batter and a 23.63 mark when he didn't. He retired Ledee on a flyout leading off. ... Posada extended his career-high hitting streak to eight games. ... Stanton won for the first time since last Sept. 24 against Tampa Bay. ... Yankees players will receive their 1999 World Series championship rings before Monday's game against Oakland.