NEW YORK (AP) – Hideki Matsui drove in three runs, and the New York Yankees’ hitters made plenty of noise on a quiet afternoon in the Bronx, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 9-3 Monday.

Only 8,848 fans showed up at Yankee Stadium to watch the makeup of a July 22 rainout. The Yankees lead the majors with an average home attendance of nearly 44,000, and were coming off a weekend in which they drew three straight sellouts to see Boston.

The fans that turned out saw New York extend its AL East lead to three games over the Red Sox, who played later at Baltimore. It was so sedate in the early innings that the biggest cheer came during a race by two men for a foul ball into one of the many empty sections in the upper deck.

Matsui hit his 40th double and a pair of singles, and slumping Jason Giambi went 2-for-3 with two walks. Alfonso Soriano also had three of the Yankees’ 16 hits – the same total they had in the whole series against the Red Sox.

Mike Mussina (16-7) was given a three-run lead in the first inning and kept the Yankees ahead before leaving after the seventh. He earned his 198th career victory, a day after teammate David Wells also won No. 198.

Mussina struck out eight and took over the AL lead with 183, passing Boston’s Pedro Martinez at 175. He fanned league RBIs leader Carlos Delgado three times, and has certainly seen him enough – Mussina went 3-2 in six starts against Toronto this year.

Kelvim Escobar (10-9) was tagged for eight runs and 10 hits in just 3 1-3 innings. Two of the runs were unearned, one because of his own throwing error.

Matsui hit a two-run single in the first inning, and added an RBI single in a four-run fourth that made it 8-2.

Matsui’s 95 RBIs are the most by a Yankees rookie since Joe DiMaggio had 125 in 1936. Matsui had good timing, too, because fans received Hideki Matsui bobblehead dolls.

Giambi got two hits after starting the game in a 1-for-40 rut. Manager Joe Torre originally planned to rest the slugger, but reconsidered after seeing Giambi’s past numbers against Escobar.

Giambi’s lone hit in his long skid was a home run off Escobar last week, and Giambi was 10-for-23 with three homers lifetime off the Toronto righty.

Orlando Hudson hit a two-run double in the Toronto second. He doubled and scored on Vernon Wells’ third hit in the fifth.

Notes: Yankees C Jorge Posada got a day off for rest. … New York finished 10-9 against Toronto this season. … The Yankees have 20 regular-season games left this year. Except for a three-game series against Chicago, they’ll be playing sub-.500 teams the rest of the way. … 2B Hudson ran all over the field. He made a sensational diving catch in short right on John Flaherty’s soft liner, ranged nearly to medium center and almost caught Soriano’s flare and tumbled over the first-base tarp trying for a foul pop.

AP-ES-09-08-03 1615EDT