The Associated Press

BOSTON - Curse or no curse, Babe Ruth would have gotten a kick out of David Wells, who is closer to him in girth and spirit than any other Yankee. And they're both still killing the Boston Red Sox.

"I believe in it. ... I just try to follow suit and keep that theory alive," Wells said of "The Curse."

Wells pitched New York to the brink of another World Series on Tuesday, beating the Red Sox 4-2 and giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead as they head home for Game 6 today.

At Fenway Park, the place where the Babe once pitched, Wells held the Red Sox to one run on four hits over seven innings before giving way to Mariano Rivera. It was a big-time performance in a big-game moment, the kind Ruth relished and Wells has come to enjoy.

Wells grew up idolizing Ruth and even wrote a grade-school paper about the late Yankees star. He couldn't take Ruth's retired No. 3 when he joined the Yankees, so he took No. 33.

"That way," he said at the time, "I can be Babe Ruth twice over."

Wells once pitched part of a game wearing a 1934 Yankees cap worn by Ruth, has collected all manner of Ruth memorabilia and is happy to perpetuate "The Curse of the Bambino," real or not. As every Red Sox and Yankees fan knows - to the fury of the former and the delight of the latter - Ruth won two games as a Boston pitcher in the team's last World Series win in 1918. The Red Sox haven't won since selling Ruth to the Yankees two years later.

Wells won his 200th career game last month and has a 10-2 postseason record, but he has had trouble in Fenway. He was 10-10 in 30 games and 20 starts there before Tuesday.

"Whenever they are ready to get rid of this place, let me push the button," he said a few days ago.

He expanded on that after Tuesday's victory.

"I'm all about tradition and old school. This is a great ballpark. But for an individual like myself to have very little success here, you just say things like that. It's not a shot below the belt against Boston or anything, because I think this is a great town. ... We're driving home last night to the hotel, and every block everybody is flipping us off. I wish had a video camera."