NY Yankees' Derek Jeter (C) celebrates as he holds the World Series trophy with his teammates after they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 to win the 2009 Major League Baseball World Series in New York, November 4. (RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS)

NEW YORK (NYT) – A sliver of time for other teams is an epoch for the Yankees, who define themselves by championships. For eight seasons, they led the majors in victories, payroll and drama. They built a ballpark, created a network and expanded their brand around the globe. But they did not win the World Series.

Now they have done it. There is a 27th jewel in the Yankees’ crown and a peaceful, easy feeling across their empire. The Yankees captured their first title since 2000, humbling the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, 7-3, in Game 6 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.

Hideki Matsui homered and drove in six to tie a World Series record, and Andy Pettitte ground through five and two-thirds innings for his second victory in five days. Mariano Rivera collected the final five outs to end it.

It was the eighth anniversary of Rivera’s lowest moment, when he blew Game 7 of the 2001 World Series in Arizona. The Yankees lost the World Series again two years later, to Florida, and they did not return until this season, fortifying their roster with free agents around the core of Rivera, Pettitte, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada.

Pettitte became the second pitcher to win all three clinching games of a postseason. The other was Boston’s Derek Lowe in 2004, when the Yankees lost a three-games-to-none lead to the Red Sox, fumbling away a pennant and plunging into a postseason funk.

Pettitte was gone that autumn, part of a three-year sojourn to his Houston hometown. Otherwise, Pettitte, Rivera, Jeter and Posada have been Yankees since 1995, through dynasty and drought and back to the top. The have each earned five championship rings, one more than Babe Ruth.

Working on three days’ rest, Pettitte, 37, looked ragged at times with five walks and three strikeouts. But he held up better than the Phillies’ Pedro Martinez, 38, his old Boston adversary, who lasted just four innings.

The two had faced each other six times in the regular season, splitting the decisions, and on Tuesday, Martinez billed the matchup as "two old goats out there doing the best they can and having fun with it." Only once before had starters older than 37 met in the World Series.

Predictably, Pettitte and Martinez showed guile over power. There were 33 pitches before the first that registered 90 miles an hour.

The Yankees managed just three hits off Martinez, who issued two walks, both becoming runs. The first was to Alex Rodriguez, on four pitches, leading off the second inning. It stopped Martinez’s momentum after a 1-2-3 first.

Matsui fell behind, 0-2, but drew the count full while flicking two fouls. Martinez also threw to first twice. At worst, Matsui was driving up Martinez’s pitch count, following the plan against a brilliant but fragile pitcher. But he did much more than that.

In Game 2, Matsui broke a 1-1 tie when he pulled a Martinez curveball over the right field wall in the sixth. This time, he took a fastball that tailed over the middle and slammed it inside the right field foul pole, just above a billboard for Komatsu, the Japanese construction-equipment company.

Matsui, of course, has done more than raise the Yankees’ profile in Japan. He has been steady and efficient for seven seasons. His ravaged knees have made him a full-time designated hitter and called into doubt his future with the team. But if this was his last game as a Yankee, he made it his best.

Matsui knew glory with the Yomiuri Giants, winning three Japan Series and capturing the most valuable player award against the Daiei Hawks in 2000, when he hit .381 with three homers and eight runs batted in. He has been an elite postseason player for the Yankees, too, and never more than Wednesday.

With two out and the bases loaded in the third, Martinez struck out Rodriguez on a pitch well off the outside corner. The Phillies were warming a left-hander, J.A. Happ, but manager Charlie Manuel stuck with Martinez. Like Grady Little before him, Manuel paid for his faith.

Again, Martinez got ahead of Matsui, 0-2. Catcher Carlos Ruiz bounced from his crouch for a target up and away. Martinez hit the spot but Matsui hit the pitch, lining it into left field for two runs.

It swelled the Yankees’ lead to 4-1, and it gave Matsui nine hits in 19 postseason at-bats against Martinez. He also smacked a double off him in the eighth inning of Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, when Little, the Boston manager, refused to call for a reliever.

Martinez lasted four more batters this time, retiring them all. Chad Durbin took over in the fifth, and Jeter, who finished 11 for 27 (.407), greeted him with a double. Mark Teixeira scored Jeter with a single, and after a walk, Happ came in.

Matsui took four pitches from Happ, a rookie, three for balls. Then he ripped a double to deep right, scoring two runs to make it 7-1 and earning a share of a World Series record.

Only one other player has driven in six runs in a World Series game: the Yankees’ Bobby Richardson, in 1960. Richardson was the most valuable player that October, even though the Yankees lost to Pittsburgh. Matsui made his case this World Series by hitting .615 (8 for 13) with three homers and eight RBI.

Chase Utley, the Phillies’ second baseman, tied another Yankee in this World Series with five home runs, matching Reggie Jackson’s record haul in 1977. But Utley was hardly a factor in Game 6, grounding into a double play in the first inning, and striking out twice.

Utley was 0 for 5 in the World Series off Pettitte, and so was Ryan Howard until he came to bat after Utley’s one-out walk in the sixth. Howard, who finished the series 4 for 23 with a record 13 strikeouts, muscled a homer into the first row of seats in left-center.

That made it 7-3, and Girardi came to the mound for a quick talk with Pettitte, his old teammate. He let Pettitte stay, to the fans’ delight, but after a strikeout and a double, Pettitte’s night was over.

The fans had sensed the end all through the sixth, chanting Pettitte’s first and last name, and they erupted when he jogged off the mound. Pettitte slowed near the dugout steps, lifting his cap and shaking it.

Joba Chamberlain and Damaso Marte took it from there. They brought the lead to Rivera, who brought a championship back to the Bronx, where the Yankees believe it belongs.