The wind was whipping and the temperatures plummeting for the Yankees’ home opener, the kind of weather at the Stadium that makes pitching tough and left Andy Pettitte’s curveball all but useless. Naturally, the veteran lefty found a way to win anyway.

Pettitte got plenty of help in the Yankees’ 7-3 win over Minnesota, in the form of Hideki Matsui’s dramatic grand slam and the Bombers’ tight defense. And even not at his best, he was more than good enough to beat the Twins in front of 33,109 fans in The Bronx.

On a 35-degree day that left him bereft of one of his best weapons, Pettitte (2-0) was economical. He threw 55 of his 86 pitches for strikes, allowing five hits and three runs – two in his sixth and final inning – to run his record to a perfect 3-0 in home openers.

“That was huge,” Pettitte said of the aura around the Stadium. “The more you watch these games you think there’s nothing different about this place. Then all of a sudden it seems like every year something special happens that amazes you, like Hideki hitting that grand slam.”

Matsui had Pettitte’s back with both his bat and his glove. With Pettitte working quickly and clinging to a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth, he allowed a leadoff double to Jacque Jones and a one-out walk by Corey Koskie for his first trouble of the day.

Torii Hunter stroked an RBI double to plate Jones, but Matsui made a leaping stab to keep the ball from bouncing by him in left. That kept Koskie from scoring, and Pettitte escaped by inducing Matt LeCroy to bounce into a fielder’s choice and Doug Mientkiewicz to ground out.

“He pitched really good,” said catcher Jorge Posada. “He didn’t have a curveball, but he still managed to keep the ball down and get a lot of ground balls, get a lot of double plays. That was key.”

Backed by inning-ending double plays in the first and fifth, Pettitte finally got in trouble in the sixth, right after Matsui had given him a 7-1 lead. After he walked Jones and Cristian Guzman, Hunter plated a run with a sac fly and LeCroy another with an RBI single.

“Obviously I was frustrated I walked the first two batters. I don’t know if I was getting tired or not,” said Pettitte after career win No. 130. “The plan was to kind of pitch them off-speed stuff early. I knew they were a very aggressive team. All in all, with the weather, I was pretty happy.”