ANAHEIM, Calif. — When Derek Jeter recalls the last time the New York Yankees got this close to the World Series, he gets chills down his spine that have nothing to do with the cold he's fighting.

"If you have the opportunity to get something over with, you'd like to do it," the New York captain said. "It's not always going to happen."

Although the Yankees have a strong record in potential closeout playoff games over their peerless history, the 2004 AL championship series is a prodigious hole in their reputation that only a record 40th AL pennant could begin to cover. Up 3-0, New York lost four straight to the Boston Red Sox in an unprecedented collapse, and the Yankees hadn't been that close to the World Series since — until now.

They get the first of three shots at a closeout victory over the struggling Angels in Game 5 of the ALCS on Thursday night, with A.J. Burnett facing Los Angeles ace John Lackey.

After half a decade and several hundred million dollars' worth of premium free-agent shopping, most of the Yankees who have rolled through six wins in their first seven postseason games this fall don't share Jeter's memories of 2004.

Manager Joe Girardi understands the history,.

"There's a lot of different faces," Girardi said. "You look at our rotation, CC (Sabathia) wasn't here, A.J. wasn't here. You look at the bullpen, and I believe Mo (Mariano Rivera) was the only guy that was here. It's a different scenario, but we understand who the Angels are."