(My Sportsbook) - The odds of the Boston Red Sox rallying to beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series are bad enough, but they got worse with the news that Curt Schilling won't be able to start a possible Game 5 due to a right ankle injury.

Already behind 2-0 in the best-of-seven series, Red Sox manager Terry Francona announced that Schilling, who will need surgery on the ankle after the playoffs, would start Derek Lowe in Game 5. Francona wouldn't rule out Schilling for the remainder of the ALCS. Although, the middle three games are slated for Fenway Park, the Red Sox will be hard pressed to even take the series back to New York.

Pedro Martinez volunteered to start on short rest, but Francona said that isn't likely to happen. However, it depends on what transpires this weekend, as rain is the forecast for Friday night. A postponement may give Martinez an extra day to come back and pitch Game 5 if it's moved to Monday. Right now though, that's a big if.

"We may make some changes along the way because of weather and things like that," Francona said. "As far as coming back early, I don't think that's going to happen just because I don't think it puts us in a better position to win."

Schilling lasted just three innings and gave up six hits and six runs in a 10-7 Game 1 loss Tuesday night. Martinez then threw Game 2, but the Red Sox couldn't muster much offense and were beaten, 3-1.

"Not much has changed. When you lose a game or two you want to win, if you bail on how you feel about things, or drastically change the direction you've gone the whole year I think that would be a big mistake," Francona said.

In order for the Red Sox to beat the Yankees, they'll have to become the first team since 1985 to overcome a 2-0 deficit in a League Championship Series. It happened twice that year with St. Louis coming back versus Los Angeles in the NLCS, while Kansas City rallied to beat Toronto in the ALCS.

The Red Sox lost the first two games of an ALCS three times, in 1999 versus the Yankees, 1990 against Oakland, and 1988 versus the A's. Boston has collectively won one game in those three series.

Meanwhile, the Yankees haven't lost an ALCS since 1980 when they were swept in three games by the Kansas City Royals. New York has won seven straight times since then in the ALCS.

On the positive side for the Red Sox, they return to Fenway Park, where they posted the second-best home record (55-26) in the majors in 2004, behind only the Yankees (57-24).

"I think most teams are more comfortable at home, and when you have a place like Fenway, it makes it even better for us," Francona said. "Our left-handed hitters know they can hit that (Green Monster) wall."

There is some encouragement for the Red Sox. They hit .306 this season at Fenway Park, 46 points higher than on the road. Only two starters - Mark Bellhorn (.283) and Orlando Cabrera (.266) weren't over the .300 mark. Johnny Damon (.330), Kevin Millar (.350), Bill Mueller (.344), Trot Nixon (.343), David Ortiz (.325), Manny Ramirez (.315) and Jason Varitek (.336) all excelled at Fenway Park.

"There's a lot of knooks and crannies that we're very comfortable with here," Francona added. "Even defensively, we probably play better here. You see Manny play left field, he knows how to play left field here. Coming home to this atmosphere can only help us."

Those numbers though are during the regular season. There's no telling what will happen in Boston this weekend. In ALCS history, it's been a much different story at Fenway Park. The Red Sox own a 7-9 home mark in the ALCS with losses in eight of their last 10 home ALCS games, beginning in 1988.

Meanwhile, several Yankees struggled this year hitting in Beantown, namely Derek Jeter (.140), Alex Rodriguez (.216), Gary Sheffield (.231), John Olerud (.182) and Miguel Cairo (.143). Hideki Matsui (.457) and Jorge Posada (.344) were both Red Sox killers at Fenway Park, combining for four homers and 21 RBI.

Aside from stopping the Yankee hitters and hopefully getting a good performance from Bronson Arroyo in Game 3, the Red Sox are in desperate need of a boost offensively. Damon, the team's lead-off hitter, is 0-for-8 with five strikeouts. The top five hitters in Boston's lineup went 2-for-19 Wednesday night, and so far in the series, Mike Mussina and Jon Lieber, for the most part, have looked like Cy Young Award winners.

"They have attacked the strike zone so well, but our philosophy really isn't to take strike one," Francona added. "Our philosophy is to get pitches we can handle and do some damage with that. If we went up taking, we'd be 0-2 on almost every at-bat. They're throwing strikes and staying out of the middle of the plate. That's how you have success. We'll continue to go with our philosophy. We just need to execute it better."

If the Red Sox don't perform well against Kevin Brown Friday night, they could be staring in the face of a possible four-game sweep.