By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MIAMI - Aaron Boone made himself the hero of the American League Championship Series with one swing of the bat.

The rest of the postseason has been less than heroic.

Boone went 1-for-4 Thursday night in the New York Yankees' 6-4 loss to the Florida Marlins in Game 5.

It's been a rough two nights at the plate for the former Red. Boone had a chance to do some damage Thursday.

He came up with runners at first and third and no outs in the seventh. He flied out to shallow right. The Yankees got only one run out of what could have been a big inning.

In Game 4, Boone came up with the bases loaded and one out in the 11th. He struck out, stifling a chance for the Yankees' to get the winning run home.

Boone is hitting .150 (3-for-20) in the World Series, although he does have two RBI.

He is hitting .173 (9-for-52) with only four RBI in the postseason.

He does have the 11th-inning home run that beat the Red Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS. He also hit a big home run in Game 3 of the World Series.

Yankees manager Joe Torre considered benching Boone for Game 5. He sat Alfonso Soriano instead and started Enrique Wilson at second.

"My feeling is Boone is probably a better defender at third base," Torre said. " ... We really rely a great deal on our defense."

Whatever has happened to Boone in the postseason, good or bad, he's talked about "turning the page."

Thursday, he obviously didn't want to talk about it. He avoided the media after the game.