updated 11:12 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2004

BOSTON - Led by police, Jorge Posada and the Yankees calmly walked through a throng of Red Sox fans, taunted with one angry chant after another while heading from the clubhouse to their buses outside Fenway Park.

The players never seemed fazed. Dressed in street clothes, Posada even slowed to sign some autographs for a few New York fans in the crowd. He and his teammates have heard it all in Boston the last few years, and nothing seems to be able to stop them this postseason — except the rain.

Game 3 of the AL championship series was postponed by showers Friday night, perhaps halting New York’s momentum a bit. After dropping their division series opener against Minnesota, the Yankees have won five postseason games in a row to move within two wins of the World Series.

“It’s understandable you can’t play. At this time of year though, I think you’re kind of anxious,” manager Joe Torre said. “I don’t think it bothers us at all. We play it one game at a time. You’re definitely anxious, but the last game you played, you won, so that helps.”

New York will have to wait until Saturday to try to open a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 3 will be made up Monday.

“Well, they didn’t win tonight,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “We still need to win when we play next.”

An amped-up Kevin Brown was all set to start Friday night for the Yankees. Now he gets bumped to Saturday.

“I know he was ready to pitch tonight, and he was, I think, more antsy than anyone else in our clubhouse. He went back and forth. He was very anxious to pitch ... because he’s very prepared,” New York pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said. “I don’t really think it will have any effect on him at all. In this case, it may have a tendency to help him a little bit.”

Stottlemyre said Orlando Hernandez probably will start Game 4 as planned, though Mike Mussina would be fully rested Sunday. Mussina, currently slated to start the fifth game, took a perfect game into the seventh inning of the opener, beating Curt Schilling.

Because of the rainout, the teams would lose the off day if the series goes beyond five games. Game 6 remains scheduled for Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

If the series goes seven, New York could have a pitching problem. The 39-year-old Brown would be the likely choice to start — on only three days’ rest. A proven winner in the postseason, he’s thrown just 11 2-3 innings since Sept. 3, when he broke his left hand punching a clubhouse wall.

The other choice probably would be struggling right-hander Javier Vazquez, passed up for Game 4 once Hernandez got healthy.

That’s the advantage of using Mussina in Game 4 — he would have two days’ rest before a possible Game 7 and probably would be available out of the bullpen. That’s what happened last year, when he made the only relief appearance of his career and kept the Yankees close before they rallied against Pedro Martinez.

But New York has no intentions of letting it get that far this time.

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