New York trailed Boston by 5½ games on the morning of Aug. 11 before going 35-12 the rest of the way. Johnson was a big reason why, going 6-0 with a 1.93 ERA in eight starts since Aug. 21. With New York down by four games on Sept. 11, he beat Wakefield 1-0 to start the final push.

“Every game out was like a bigger game for him,” Jeter said, “and he got better and better.”

Wakefield (16-12) started on three days’ rest for the first time this year and gave up seven runs on seven hits, striking out one in five innings. He had won eight of his prior 10 decisions while avoiding the clunker of an outing that the knuckleball seems to produce, allowing only three homers in September.

But he quickly matched that on the first day of October.

Sheffield hit a two-run shot as New York took a 3-0 lead in the first. Ramirez’s two-run homer in the bottom half cut the deficit to one run. The Yankees scored on a pair of sacrifice flies in the second inning and then made it 5-2 on Matsui’s homer in the third.

Rodriguez added a solo shot in the fifth — his 48th of the year, moving him ahead of Ortiz for the AL lead. Wakefield also allowed one of the more painful homers in Red Sox history when he gave up Aaron Boone’s shot that ended Game 7 of the 2003 AL championship series.

The Red Sox recovered the next year and won their first World Series title since 1918. But they’ll have to wait at least one more day to find out if they’ve got a chance to defend their title.

Notes: Jeter reached the 200-hit milestone for the fourth time. Only Lou Gehrig, who had 200 hits eight times, has more as a Yankee. ... When Francona heard that the Yankees had brought in a knuckleballer to pitch batting practice Saturday to prepare for Wakefield, he quipped, “we imported a 6-foot-11 guy.”... Torre said facing a knuckleballer in batting practice was more to get the Yankee hitters adjusted to the speed of the pitch rather than the movement. “So much today is based on timing to a certain speed of pitch,” he said. ... Torre moved Cano up to sixth in the batting order and Martinez up to seventh largely because of the success they’ve had against Wakefield in the past.

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