Curt Schilling pitched seven innings in Game 6 for the Red Sox, during which time his right foot sock became soaked in blood due to an outstanding ankle injury.

[6] During the offseason, they traded Casey Fossum, Brandon Lyon, Jorge de la Rosa, and a minor leaguer to the Arizona Diamondbacks for ace starting pitcher Curt Schilling.

[10] In an attempt to improve the team and solidify a playoff decision and in anticipation for a showdown against the New York Yankees,[11] general manager Theo Epstein traded well-liked shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and shortstop Orlando Cabrera in a four-team deal on the trading deadline (July 31).

"[18][19] Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe wrote that "one year after they (Yankees) jousted to the (Sox's) finish in the Bronx last October in an epic seventh game that appeared to take the clash to its zenith they go at it again..."[20] In this series, Alex Rodriguez seemed to answer the Sox' acquisition of Curt Schilling, as the two veteran stars faced each other, "wearing the uniforms of the ancient rivals in an October game..."[20] Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina summed up the build-up: "This is what everyone was hoping for...It's a rematch of last year, with the best two teams in the American League.

Schilling had sustained a torn tendon sheath in his right ankle during Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Angels, and proved to be ineffective.

Next inning, Tom Gordon allowed singles to Bill Mueller and Manny Ramirez before Ortiz's two-out triple cut the Yankees lead to 8–7.

The Sox hit two singles in the top of the ninth inning off of Rivera, but the game ended when Bill Mueller grounded into a double play.

Martinez got himself in and out of trouble through several innings, but, shortly after making his 100th pitch of the night, walked Jorge Posada and allowed a John Olerud home run, giving New York a 3–0 lead.

Rivera shut down the Red Sox in the ninth by inducing a groundout by Mark Bellhorn, and, after giving up a double to Manny Ramírez, striking out David Ortiz and Millar, ending the game.

The Red Sox, however, responded in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs on an Orlando Cabrera bases-loaded double off Yankees reliever Javier Vázquez to tie the game.

After another double by Hideki Matsui, the Red Sox put in pitcher Tim Wakefield, who volunteered to forgo his scheduled Game 4 start in order to preserve Boston's battered bullpen.

[11] Bob Ryan wrote about the Red Sox in The Boston Globe: "They are down, 3–0, after last night's 19–8 rout, and, in this sport, that is an official death sentence.

Ramírez led off with a single against new pitcher Paul Quantrill, who had relieved Tom Gordon, and Ortiz hit a two-run walk-off home run to right field.

Ortiz became the first player with two walk-off homers in the same postseason; his first capped a Red Sox sweep of the Anaheim Angels in the American League Division Series.

Red Sox pitcher Curtis Leskanic got the win in relief after being called on to stop the Yankees' 11th inning threat and had pitched the 12th and allowed no runs.

Ortiz led off the eighth inning with a home run off former Red Sox reliever Tom Gordon, making it a one-run game.

Two Red Sox led off the 11th with singles, but Esteban Loaiza, who had struggled since being acquired by the Yankees mid-season, came in to pitch with one out and got Orlando Cabrera to ground into a double play.

The previous night's hero did his job again, singling to center on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to bring home Damon and setting off another celebration at Fenway.

Game 5 of the National League Championship Series began at 8:54 pm EST on the same night and was intended to be the second part of FOX's two-game telecast.

Schilling pitched with a torn tendon sheath in his right ankle, which was sutured in place in an unprecedented procedure by Red Sox team doctors.

Nonetheless, the Yankees did not bunt for the duration of Schilling's outing, something Joe Torre later explained as not playing out of the normal character of his team.

In the top of the ninth, after a leadoff single by Jason Varitek, his third hit of the night, off Paul Quantrill (the game 4 loser), the Yankees attempted to turn a double play.

As the Yankees made a pitching change to insert Tanyon Sturtze into the game to relieve Quantrill, home plate umpire Joe West conversed with New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, MLB security director Kevin Hallinan, and various NYPD officials.

Shortly after this, Sturtze was told to stop his warmup, and NYPD officers began streaming out of the dugouts, and took the field in full riot gear.

Torre then replaced Brown with Javier Vázquez to face Johnny Damon, who hammered his first pitch into the right-field seats for a grand slam to make the score 6–0 Boston.

Vazquez walked Cabrera to lead off the fourth before Damon again homered on his first pitch to make it 8–1 Boston and give him three hits and six RBIs in this game.

After walking two batters, Vazquez was relieved by Esteban Loaiza, who allowed a single to Jason Varitek to load the bases before retiring Trot Nixon and Kevin Millar to end the inning.

Mike Timlin pitched a scoreless eighth and started the 9th for the Red Sox, but allowed a leadoff single to Matsui and walked Lofton with two outs.

The Red Sox won 10–3 and became the third team in sports history and the first since the 1975 NHL's New York Islanders to win a seven-game series after losing the first three games.

Four years later in 2014, the Los Angeles Kings came back from 3–0 in a series with the San Jose Sharks in the Western Conference First Round en route to winning the Stanley Cup.