"There's nothing better than World Series baseball in the Bronx," she said. "I couldn't sleep last night I was so upset, but I was also so thrilled by the passion the Yankees showed in the top of the ninth, (rallying) from that big a deficit."

When New York's Game 5 rally fell short in Philadelphia, it left Yankees fans with questions and a bit of doubt but also a sense of excitement that their team would win a 27th title in new Yankee Stadium.

"Two out of three ain't bad, That's what I was singing at the game last night," said Chris Jarmuz, a Yankees fan from the Philly area. "It's no gimme — far from a layup — but after losing that first game, you've got to feel good being up 3-2."

Even the usually rough-and-tumble New York Post struck a hopeful tone with its blaring front-page headline — "BRING IT ON HOME. Yankees can win it all in Bronx."

Still, some fans wondered how their team, despite the highest payroll in the game, could be without a fourth starter in the World Series.

WFAN host Mike Francesa suggested the Yanks would have been better off to have started Chad Gaudin in Game 5 and pitch a well-rested A.J. Burnett in Game 6, and urged manager Joe Girardi to employ closer Mariano Rivera for a three-inning save if the Yankees lead in the seventh inning of Game 6.

"I know he is the only sure thing there is," Francesa said on-air. The Daily News wondered about the wisdom of the team's financial commitment to Mark Teixeira, proclaiming "$181M for this?" on its back page.

Teixeira is the most prominent of several Yankees struggling in the Series, hitting .105 (2-for-19).

Still, fans weren't fretting the Series' final outcome.

"We all know what's going on," said Charlie Powell, 57, of the Bronx, as he waved players' cars into the parking garage at Yankee Stadium.

"We know how this thing goes. We've done this before. (Philadelphia) is a good team, but ours is just a better team. They'll never beat us two games. We'll beat them one before they'll beat us two."

Jose Gamez, 29, from Brooklyn, was of the same mind-set.

"They're the Yankees. This is what they do. They torture everybody, then, at the end, they always pull through. This year reminds me of the '96 Yankees."

Gamez went so far as to suggest that the Yankees even lost a game in Philadelphia just to be able to clinch the Series at home. "I think they blew last night's game on purpose, just to come home," he said.

And Gamez wasn't the only one convinced of that. Nancy Wandell, 38, from Jersey City, one of about a dozen fans camping out at the stadium in hopes of purchasing Game 6 tickets, is sure the fix was in.

"The Yanks purposely lost so they could be here to win it for the real fans," insisted Wandell, who began her ticket vigil around 8 p.m. Monday. "I think so. My whole family does."

Cindy Solomon, a registered nurse from the Bronx was taking matters into her own hands.

"I'm praying in the end they'll come out winners," she said. "I have great hope. I'm sure they are going to win."

Enlarge By Sean Dougherty, USA TODAY Peter Murray, a 15-year-old visiting from Melbourne, Australia, walks through Times Square with his family on Tuesday. He bought his team jacket a few days ago when he "decided to take up the good spirit" and root for the Yankees in the Series.