Otherwise, a storied team with 26 World Series titles will also be remembered for the choke of all-time in October.

Against its bitter rival, no less.

Talk about a painful winter of wondering what if. Talk about an angry George Steinbrenner.

Curt Schilling shut down the Yankees on a gimpy right ankle Tuesday night, and the Red Sox saved their season for the third day in a row with a 4-2 victory in Game 6 of the AL championship series.

Boston became the first team in baseball history to pull even after trailing 3-0 in a best-of-seven series. Only twice in North American major professional sports has a club come back to win such a series after dropping the first three games, both times in hockey: the New York Islanders against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the quarterfinals of the 1975 NHL playoffs and the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings in the 1942 Stanley Cup finals.

The Yankees desperately don't want to be added to the wrong side of that short list.

After blowing late leads at Fenway Park the previous two days, the Yankees thought coming home would give them a boost.

It didn't matter much at all. The momentum stayed with Boston.

Playing before a lively crowd of 56,128 on a raw, misty night, New York couldn't even get a hometown call.

Mark Bellhorn's three-run homer for the Red Sox was originally ruled a ground-rule double. But after much discussion, the umpires correctly reversed the call - the ball had ricocheted back onto the field after hitting a fan in the front row of the left-field seats.

Then, in the eighth, with the Yankees seemingly on the verge of another comeback, the biggest call of the night went against them.

Alex Rodriguez hit a dribbler between the mound and first base. Boston reliever Bronson Arroyo picked up the ball and reached out to tag Rodriguez, who chopped down on Arroyo's arm and knocked the ball free.

Derek Jeter raced around to score and Rodriguez wound up on second, apparently cutting the deficit to 4-3. But the umpires got together again and called Rodriguez out for interference.

Angry fans began throwing debris on the field, delaying the game even longer. When play resumed, Jeter went back to first and Arroyo escaped further damage.

The Yankees put the tying runs on base in the bottom of the ninth, but Tony Clark struck out against Boston closer Keith Foulke to end it.

Now the Yankees are left trying to avoid a collapse as monumental as any the Red Sox ever endured.

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