Clemens gets a KO in fourth inning

NEW YORK -- Wow, what a shot!

Aaron 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.

Boone, 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.

The 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.

New 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.

New 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.

But 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.

For the Yankees, who haven't won the World Series since 2000, this was their fifth pennant in six seasons.

But only the names change in the annual fight between New York and New England -- never the result.

The two 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.