Nobody on the Yankees would publicly admit it, but Thursday night’s ballgame was a must-win for them. After dropping the opener of the ALCS to the Red Sox on Wednesday, a Game Two loss would send the Bronx Bombers back to Beantown down 2-0 and staring down the barrel at Pedro Martinez in Fenway Park. It doesn’t get much worse than that.

Just as it did last week, the task of rescuing the Yankee season from the brink of disaster fell to Andy Pettitte. The situtation couldn’t have been in better hands; the last ten times Dandy Andy had pitched after a Yankee loss, he’d garnered a victory, with three of those stops coming against Boston.

But the Red Sox came out looking as though they might stop Pettitte dead in his tracks on this night. Gabe Kapler, playing centerfield for the injured Johnny Damon, led off the ballgame with an infield single, but he was erased on a strikeout-throwout double-play. Two singles and a walk to the Sox big three hitters (Nomar Garciaparra, Manny Ramirez, and David Ortiz) followed to load the bases, with Ortiz coming back from an 0-2 count to draw the base on balls. Pettitte squeaked free by getting Kevin Millar to pop up, but his 22-pitch count gave cause for concern.

The second inning started off even worse for the lefty. A Jason Varitek double and a Trot Nixon single put runners on the corners, and then #9 hiter Damian Jackson squirted a single up the middle to score the first run of the ballgame, still with nobody out. Blood was in the water. But Kapler grounded Pettitte’s first pitch to Derek Jeter, who stepped on second and then fired to first to complete the critical double-play. After falling behind Bill Mueller, Pettitte then induced ground out to end the inning. The Yanks were trailing, and their starter had already thrown 39 pitches, but the situation could have been much, much worse.

Jorge Posada began the Yankee second against Derek Lowe by working a walk. Then in a matchup which pitted the game’s most extreme groundball pitcher with its most extreme groundball hitter, Lowe got Hideki Matsui to hit — guess what? — a grounder to second. But after getting the forceout, Nomar was unable to complete the DP. Nick Johnson stepped in next, still in the midst of a 1-for-33 slump. On the second pitch, Lowe threw Johnson a cutter that didn’t cut. Nick the Stick cranked the Loweball over the rightfield wall, a towering shot that put the Yanks up 2-1, their first lead in the series.

Pettitte kept the momentum going the Yankee way by slicing through Boston’s big three on ten pitches, and then the Yanks struck again in the bottom of the third. With one out, Jeter reached on an infield single, and then Jason Giambi went the other way with a single to left. Bernie Williams immediately followed with a single to score Jeter. Then Jorge Posada stroked a low liner to Jackson, but the Sox second baseman, thinking double-play all the way, failed even to make the catch. The ball squirted through the infield, then Jackson threw poorly to eliminate even the forceout. The bases now loaded, Hideki Matsui again hit a ground ball, with Millar forcing out Giambi at home. Johnson grounded out to end the inning, but the Yanks now led 3-1.

Both pitchers continued to slop through, stranding baserunners here and there. Matsui finally gained some redemption in the fifth, singling home Williams from second after the Yankee centerfielder had doubled. Bernie appears to be locked in at the plate, his ailing knee well enough to allow him to resume his trademark ass-out crouch at the plate. He’s hitting .381 with a .985 OPS this October, a welcome boost after a subpar season.

Now holding a 4-1 lead, Pettitte got two quick outs in the sixth. But Varitek smacked a frozen rope that carried all the way to the leftfield net, his fourth homer of the postseason. 4-2 Yankees. Andy got the first two outs in the seventh as well before Mueller singled. His starter having thrown 118 pitches and the big boys coming up again, Joe Torre took a leap of faith and handed the ball to Jose Contreras, the new symbol of this classic rivalry. Recall that the Yanks won a bidding war with the Sox over Conteras, which led to Boston president Larry Lucchino’s sour-grapes remark about the Yanks as “the Evil Empire.” The Empire struck back, as Nomar popped up Contreras’ first pitch to Johnson at first base, ending the inning.

Again, the Yanks wheeled out their lengthy display of forced patriotism in the seventh, and again Ronan Tynan’s pipes brought more Yankee magic and more pain to the opposing starter. Giambi stroked a two-out single, and Williams drew a walk, bringing the curtain down on Lowe’s night. Posada greeted reliever Scott Sauerbeck with a bases-clearing double, and a passed ball took him to third, but the Yanks failed to capitalize. Still, that’s now six runs in four seventh innings at Yankee Stadium, which comes out to a 13.50 ERA. God bless that Irish tenor.

With the score 4-2, Torre had prepared Mariano Rivera to pitch the final two innings. But with the lead now doubled and his setup man having thrown exactly one pitch, Torre let Contreras work the eighth. The Cuban righty set the Sox down 1-2-3, setting the stage for the Yankee closer to come on in the ninth and nail down the win, which he did. The series is now split, 1-1.

So again, the two teams hit the road with their chins up, the Sox for stealing a game in the Bronx, the Yanks for carrying some momentum into foreign territory. Saturday’s matchup is one for the ages, pitting Pedro against Roger Clemens, who makes what will certainly be his final start in the ballpark where he won 101 games. That’s nine Cy Young Awards on the mantle for these two. October was made for this matchup.

A couple of lineup changes may play a part in Game Three. Damon should return to action for the Sox, replacing Kapler, who had a miserable night against Pettitte. After singling for his first postseason hit, he was on the bad end of the two early DPs, then struck out twice to run his line to 1-for-17 in October. Damon had a hot Divisional Series against Oakland before that grisly Game Five collision — .316 with a .988 OPS. On the other side of the diamond, the Yankee lineup against Martinez will likely include futilityman Enrique Wilson either at second for Soriano or third for Aaron Boone. Wilson was 7-for-8 with four doubles against the Boston ace this season, and is 10-for-20 lifetime with a 1.224 OPS, proving that even a blind chicken finds a kernal of corn once in awhile.