As return engagements go, it was hard to quibble with this one.

Ted Lilly was back at Yankee Stadium on Friday, pitching against his former team. And this New York Yankees lineup seemed as mighty as any of the legendary ones they've put on the field. So, when Lilly left after 5 2/3 innings having allowed just two runs to that point, it was tempting to say, "Job well done."

But that's not what Lilly said.

"It's hard to feel totally satisfied when you don't win," he mused.

David Wells pitched the Yankees to their third win in a row and 12th in 15 games. Manager Joe Torre moved into a tie for 14th place on baseball's career victory list with Fred Clarke at 1,602.

After the start was delayed 78 minutes by rain, Wells (4-0) and Ted Lilly (2-1) dueled into the middle innings.

Wells made only one mistake, giving up a two-run homer to ninth-place hitter Eric Byrnes in the third. Lilly, pitching for the first time against the team that traded him last July 5, gave back the lead in the bottom half on Todd Zeile's two-run homer.

Lilly figured to be a bit excited about this start. He still keeps in touch with Torre and has several friends on the Yankees.

"I think the first inning is something you want to get through," Lilly said. "You want to get the ball rolling."

Wells gave up five hits in seven innings. Juan Acevedo pitched a scoreless eighth, then was pulled after allowing Erubiel Durazo's leadoff double in the ninth.

Mariano Rivera was summoned for the third straight day, and closed for his second save. He started the season on the disabled list because of a groin injury and was activated this week.

Terrence Long had an RBI groundout for Oakland in the ninth.

Matsui, down to a .250 batting average after grounding out in his first two at-bats, helped the Yankees take a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Bernie Williams drew a leadoff walk and was running when Matsui fought off a tough, up-and-in pitch and singled to center field.

From there, Lilly dodged disaster, much like somebody darting between cars on a freeway. Disaster would loom one moment. Lilly would ease his way through the trouble the next.

All of which laid the groundwork for the sixth. Lilly walked Bernie Williams to open the inning, then saw Hideki Matsui single up the middle with a swing that resembled self-defense. Then Lilly, ducking and dodging, got Jorge Posada on a short fly to right and Raul Mondesi on a pop-up to second.

Next up, Trammell. Lilly fell behind 2-and-0. Lilly evened the count. Trammell fouled off a couple. Lilly threw ball three. Trammell fouled off one more. And, finally, Lilly missed for ball four.

That loaded the bases and signaled the end of Lilly's night. Chad Bradford replaced him and walked left-handed hitting pinch-hitter Robin Ventura on five pitches. That made it 3-2. Bradford wound up pitching the seventh, too, allowing two runs, and the A's goose was cooked.

He needed to get him out, because when he didn't, Macha was left with no choice but to bring in Bradford to face Ventura, a match-up that was iffy at best. Macha said he was not willing to have lefty Ricardo Rincon face one batter that early in the game. Right-hander Jim Mecir, whose screwball makes him another candidate to get key left-handed hitters out, was unavailable after pitching two innings at Chicago on Thursday.

"He did such a great job getting out of the fifth, but in the sixth he threw a lot of pitches," Macha said of Lilly. "He just didn't have enough."

Nevertheless, Lilly gave the A's plenty. He said he had been looking forward to facing the team for which he went 8-12 over parts of three seasons-Lilly was traded by the Yankees to the A's in a three-team deal in July-and that it would be one of the bigger challenges he faced.

"Yeah, that was very big," Lilly said of Trammell's at-bat. "I got behind in the count, and I wasn't throwing my changeup as well as I normally do, so I didn't really want to use it. Then I just lost some of my command with my other pitches. It was a big at-bat. I needed to get him out."

After Williams was intentionally walked in the seventh, Matsui poked an opposite-field double to left off Bradford, a side-arming righty, to drive in Zeile for a 4-2 lead.

Nevertheless, Lilly gave the A's plenty. He said he had been looking forward to facing the team for which he went 8-12 over parts of three seasons-illy was traded by the Yankees to the A's in a three-team deal in July-nd that it would be one of the bigger challenges he faced.

No surprise there. Five of the nine Yankees in the opening lineup had averages over .300. Five of them had at least 18 RBI. The weak link, hard to believe, was former A's MVP Jason Giambi, who struck out three times and saw his average fall to .189.

Yet Lilly was in control for most of the night. Triple-crown candidate Alfonso Soriano, Williams, Giambi and .346-hitting Raul Mondesi all went hitless. The difference, in the end, was that Matsui had an RBI double among his two hits and Bradford walked in two runs.

Thus, Lilly had to be darn near perfect against a lineup that's "stacked, beyond stacked," first baseman Scott Hatteberg said. "I thought Lilly was great. He did about as much as he could do."