Game 4
Red Sox 6, Yankees 4, 12 innings
David Ortiz’s drive into the right-field bullpen set off a frenzy at Fenway Park and gave the Boston Red Sox a shot at pulling off the greatest comeback ever.

Down to their last three outs of the season, the Red Sox rallied — against Mariano Rivera, the New York Yankees and decades of disappointment.

Bill Mueller singled home the tying run off Rivera in the ninth inning and Ortiz homered against Paul Quantrill to end it in the 12th, giving Boston a do-or-die victory over the Yankees early Monday.

“This is a team that never gives up,” Ortiz said.

This game lasted 5 hours, 2 minutes and ended at 1:22 a.m. EDT.

Of the 25 previous teams to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven series, 20 were swept, three lost in five games and two lost in six.

Game 5
Red Sox 5, Yankees 4, 14 innings
David Ortiz lifted the ball into center field on the 471st pitch of the night, and for the second time in 22½ hours, the Boston Red Sox poured out of their dugout to celebrate an improbable ending.

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With another game that seemed it would never end, Boston’s season just won’t end.

Ortiz’s RBI single off Esteban Loaiza with two outs in the 14th inning Monday night gave the host Red Sox a victory over the Yankees.

“The last two nights shows the depth, the character, the heart, the guts of our ballclub,” winner Tim Wakefield said. “It took every ounce of whatever we had left to win tonight’s game and to win last night’s game.”

This time, Boston was six outs from elimination before Ortiz’s leadoff homer off Tom Gordon and Jason Varitek’s sacrifice fly off Mariano Rivera tied it 4-4 in the eighth.

The next six innings were agonizingly tense, filled with a double play, three passed balls in the same inning, two Red Sox runners thrown out trying to steal second and 10 runners left on base.

When it was over, the teams had played back-to-back marathons that totaled 26 innings and almost 11 hours — 5 hours, 2 minutes on Sunday and 5:49 Monday — the longest by time in postseason history.

Game 6
Red Sox 4, Yankees 2
With blood seeping through his sock and bravado etched on his face, Curt Schilling shut down the Yankees and — just as he wanted — shut up 55,000-plus New Yorkers at Yankee Stadium.

Pitching on a dislocated ankle tendon held down by three sutures put in the day before, Schilling gave up one run over seven innings as the Red Sox beat the Yankees on Tuesday night.

“When I saw blood dripping though the sock and he’s giving us seven innings in Yankee Stadium, that was storybook,” Boston first baseman Kevin Millar said.

Schilling, who accepted a trade to the Red Sox last fall for the express purpose of beating the Yankees, took a three-hit shutout into the seventh before allowing Bernie Williams’ solo homer.

While the ghosts of Yankees’ past usually turn games for New York in the Bronx, Boston got the breaks in this one on two huge reversed calls.

After Orlando Cabrera’s RBI single in the fourth, Bellhorn hit a ball over the left-field wall that was at first ruled a ground-rule double by left-field umpire Jim Joyce before it was correctly changed to a three-run homer that made it 4-0. Marsh said the other five umpires all said it was a homer.

Then in the eighth, after Miguel Cairo’s double and Jeter’s RBI single off Bronson Arroyo pulled the Yankees to 4-2, Alex Rodriguez hit a ball between the mound and first. Arroyo picked it up and ran toward first, where just before the base the striding A-Rod slapped the ball away.

Jeter came all the way around to score as the ball bounced down the right-field line. After Boston manager Terry Francona came out to argue, the umpires huddled, discussed the play, then called Rodriguez out for interference and sent Jeter back to first.

Game 7
Red Sox 10, Yankees 3
Just three outs from getting swept in the AL championship series three nights earlier, the Red Sox finally humbled the Evil Empire, winning Game 7 in a shocker Wednesday night to become the first major league team to overcome a 3-0 postseason series deficit.

“All empires fall sooner or later,” Boston president Larry Lucchino said.

Boston didn’t need any of the late-inning dramatics that marked the last three games, leading 6-0 after two innings. David Ortiz, the series MVP, started it with a two-run homer in the first off broken-down Kevin Brown, and Johnny Damon quieted Yankee Stadium in the second inning with a grand slam on Javier Vazquez’s first pitch.

After Derek Jeter sparked hope of a comeback with a run-scoring single in the third, Damon put a two-run homer into the upper deck for an 8-1 lead in the fourth.

Derek Lowe pitched on two days’ rest and allowed one hit in six innings. He silenced the Yankees’ bats and boasting fans, who just last weekend assumed New York’s seventh pennant in nine years was all but a lock. Pedro Martinez started the seventh, his first relief appearance in five years, and immediately sparked chants of the now famous “Who’s Your Daddy?”

Three hits and two runs got the crowd going, but the rally stopped there. Mark Bellhorn added a solo homer in the eighth for a 9-3 Boston lead, and the bullpen closed out a five-hitter.

“It’s very amazing, I think, to do what we did,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Cheering from Red Sox fans could be heard in the ninth, and when pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra grounded to second baseman Pokey Reese for the final out at 12:01 a.m., Boston players ran onto the field and jumped together in a mass huddle.

“The greatest comeback in baseball history,” Red Sox owner John Henry proclaimed.