"They iced it and gave me some pills to take," said Peralta, following the Indians' 10-2 victory over the Yankees. "We'll have to see how it feels on Friday, but I should be fine. I stayed in the game, and I didn't need an X-ray."

Peralta opened the fourth with a double off CC Sabathia. He advanced to third on a grounder to second. Ben Francisco then pulled a ball to third base, exactly where you don't want to hit it in that situation. Peralta was running on contact as Cody Ransom made a nice stop on the ball and threw to catcher Jorge Posada from his knees.

Posada took Ransom's throw and tagged Peralta, who tried to slap the plate with his left hand. He hit Posada's shin guard instead. Posada was using the shin guard to block the plate - and he did.

Peralta knelt in back of the plate for several moments before going to the dugout.

He played the rest of the game, starting the scoring in the critical nine-run seventh inning with a two-run double to right. Peralta is hitting .297 (11-for-37) with a team-high four doubles and three RBI.

Wind vane: The Indians went into Thursday's game trying to get a quick read on Sabathia.

Sabathia's former teammates know him better than anybody. What they wanted to see was if he was overhyped about facing the team that traded him last year.

"He's an emotional pitcher," said Kelly Shoppach. "When he gets like that, he tries to throw too hard and gets wild."

They knew they could take advantage of that, but Sabathia kept his emotions under control. He held the Indians to one run in 5 2/3 innings, but did throw 122 pitches. Those were the most by a Yankee starter since Randy Johnson threw 129 on July 19, 2006.

"I was proud of CC and the way he handled his emotions," said Shoppach. "We've seen him in big situations before where he gets a little wild, but he did a nice job in a big situation with the Yankees playing their first game in a new ballpark."

When Sabathia left the game, the score was tied, 1-1. In the seventh, the Indians scored nine runs against two relievers.

"It had to be tough for him," said Shoppach. "We know what he's trying to do. We've all seen him pitch for a long time."

Said Grady Sizemore: "I thought he pitched well, but we did a good job against him. He didn't give up a lot of runs, but we worked him tough enough to where his pitch count was up and he couldn't stay in the game."

Old vs. new: Manager Eric Wedge said new Yankee Stadium looks a lot like old Yankee Stadium from a field point of view with one exception, "They've got a big high definition TV [scoreboard] in center field."

Big three: Here are the three main things Wedge says the Indians must do to overcome this bad start to the season.

"No. 1, we've got to get better with our starting pitching," he said. "No. 2, we've got to make plays to help our starting pitching. No. 3, we have to do a better job with runners in scoring position."

Wedge added a fourth point, "I want them to have as much confidence in themselves as I do in them."

Finally: Good to see the Bleacher Creatures weren't priced out of the Yankees' new ballpark. Early in Thursday game, they chanted from the right-field seats: "We're still here! We're still here!". . . Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, not in the best of health, was shown on the center-field scoreboard before the game. He has given control of the team to his sons. . . . Kelly Clarkson sang the national anthem. Four F-16C Flying Falcons did a flyover just before the first pitch.