Lead off homer blasts Yankees into World Series

NEW YORK -- Wow, what a shot!\nAaron Boone set off bedlam in the Bronx on Thursday night with a leadoff home run in the 11th inning to give the New York Yankees a 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox for a trip to the World Series and their 39th American League pennant.\nBoone, who didn't start Game 7, homered on the first pitch from knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who had two wins in the series and was making his first relief appearance.\nThe Yankees had been five outs from losing, when Jorge Posada blooped a tying two-run double off a tiring Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning.\nNew York will start the World Series at home on Saturday against the Florida Marlins, who beat the Chicago Cubs in a Game 7 on Wednesday night.\nNew York trailed 4-0 in the fourth inning and 5-2 in the eighth as Roger Clemens made an early exit in what looked to be the final game of his storied career.\nBut the Yankees bounced back, rekindling all those painful memories that have haunted so many Red Sox fans -- thoughts of Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner and decades of New York domination.\nFor the Yankees, who haven't won the World Series since 2000, this was their fifth pennant in six seasons.\nThese old foes played 26 times this season -- a baseball first -- and it went extra innings. Yet, the final words of the ultimate chapter revealed it was the same old story, one that the Red Sox perennially curse: pinstripes in the World Series, despair back in Boston.\nOnly the names change in the annual fight between New York and New England, never the result.\nMariano Rivera didn't allow a run in his first three-inning appearance since Sept. 6, 1996. It capped a triumphant night for a New York bullpen that had failed so often. This time, it allowed just one run in eight innings, and Rivera walked off with the MVP award.\nWakefield, who relieved to start the 10th, had baffled New York with his knuckleball in Games 1 and 4 and started with a scoreless inning.\nBoone, acquired from Cincinnati on July 31, then homered into the left-field seats, setting the old ballpark shaking. There wasn't a doubt from the moment it left his bat.\nIt was the first pennant-winning, extra-inning homer for the Yankees since Chris Chambliss' ninth-inning shot against Kansas City in 1976.\nRivera went right to the mound, dropping to the ground and pounding the pitching rubber with his right hand. He seemed to be sobbing by the time coach Wille Randolph got to him and hugged him.\nThe Yankees waited for Boone at home plate, hopping with excitement, and mobbed him when he arrived.