NEW YORK — On good nights, the pitch that has helped Tim Wakefield become the third-winningest pitcher in Red Sox history dips and darts with such unpredictability that even Wakefield himself can’t forecast its path. On those nights, the hitters are often helpless.

Then, there are nights like last night.

In possession of a quality knuckler in his pregame warmup in the bullpen, Wakefield failed to take that same pitch to the mound. He walked five in five innings and even when he could command the pitch within the strike zone, he couldn’t keep it down. Patient as ever, the Yankees beat Wakefield, 6-2, for the seventh time in the last nine times they’ve faced him.

“I didn’t have a good feel for it for the first time (this season),” said Wakefield, who has lost two in a row and dropped to 4-5. “I tried to grind it out and just couldn’t. I never got comfortable all night.”

Alex Rodriguez belted a two-run, tape-measure shot in the first for his major league-leading 18th homer and Jason Giambi cranked an upper-deck solo shot in the second to stake the Yanks to a 3-0 lead. A run-scoring single by Derek Jeter later that inning scored Robinson Cano (double).

Wakefield skillfully overcame a lapse of control in the third, leaving the bases loaded after he had walked them full. In the fourth, he froze Johnny Damon at third when he retired Hideki Matsui on an inning-ending flyout to right.

But he wasn’t nearly as fortunate in the fifth. A two-out single from Bobby Abreu and a walk to Giambi got him in trouble once again. Manager Terry Francona, noting Wakefield’s success against left-handed hitters this season — they were hitting a mere .158 going into last night — hoped that would extend to Cano.

Instead, Cano whacked a triple to center, scoring both baserunners and effectively putting the game out of the Red Sox’ reach.

“I wasn’t throwing strikes,” said Wakefield, “so they could sit back and wait on that one pitch in the zone. It was just one of those nights when you try to grind it out the best you can. But they took advantage of my mistakes.”

The victory, just the second in seven tries for the Yankees against the Red Sox this season, gave the Yanks something of a reprieve. Another 6-2 win the night before against the Mets in interleague play had given them a tiny boost going into the series, and the Yanks seemed a bit revitalized.

New York moved to within 9½ games of the Sox, who lost for only the fifth time in the last 25 games and saw their four-game road winning streak snapped.

While Wakefield labored, Chien-Ming Wang worked, too, but ultimately got himself out of the handful of jams he faced.

The Sox had two on and two out in the first before Wang got J.D. Drew on a roller to second. It was more of the same in the second when the Sox loaded the bases again with two outs on singles from Doug Mirabelli and Alex Cora and an error by Jeter on a grounder by Julio Lugo. But Wang fanned Kevin Youkilis.

“Once we got things going, it seemed it was always with two outs,” said Francona, “and then you need that big hit.”

By the time a few came, it was too late. Youkilis extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a double over the head of Matsui in the fifth, then rode home on a double into the right-field corner from David Ortiz.

But Wang dug in and got Ramirez (groundout) and Drew (flyout) to get out of the fifth.

Cora credited Wang with an adjustment on the mound, noting that the 19-game winner from a year ago didn’t feature his two-seam fastball nearly as much as he had in the past.

“You’ve got to tip your hat to him,” said Cora of Wang. “We had heard about it, but we didn’t expect it to this extent. We didn’t adjust.”

“I think he wanted to show them some more soft stuff,” explained Yankee manager Joe Torre. “They had hit him around a bit in the past.”

After nicking Wang for one more run in the seventh, his final inning of work, the Sox had one more chance in the eighth, with the help of the New York bullpen. Brian Bruney walked Coco Crisp, then made a throwing error that allowed Mirabelli to reach.

Scott Proctor then plunked Cora to load the bases, but Cano (two hits, two RBI and one walk) ranged behind the bag at second to take a hit away from Lugo and feed Jeter for a rally-killing forceout at second.

smcadam@projo.com