One strike away. Mike Mussina was oh-so-close to completing the fourth perfect game in Yankees history, a sequence of near-misses that would eventually prompt some to refer to the future Hall of Famer as “Mr. Almost” -- he’d also been a runner-up for an American League Cy Young Award in 1999, and would be separated by one inning from a World Series ring in November 2001.

With the Yanks seeking a series sweep at Fenway Park, Mussina had been exceptional on the evening of Sept. 2, 2001, striking out 13 Red Sox in a nationally televised performance. Boston sent up pinch-hitter Carl Everett with two outs in the ninth inning and … well, you can watch the entire game now on MLB.com and Yankees.com.

“It probably wasn’t meant to be,” Mussina said at the time.

With Everett batting for catcher Joe Oliver, Mussina got ahead with a 1-2 count and fired a fastball that was high and away to the left-handed hitter. It was a pitch that had given Everett fits in their previous encounters, but this time he made contact, flaring a soft liner into left field that neither Chuck Knoblauch nor Bernie Williams could secure.

“We were ready to explode onto the field,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said at the time. “We all thought Mike was going to do it.”

An announced crowd of 33,734 roared, and catcher Jorge Posada visited the mound to settle Mussina, whose shoulders had sagged as the baseball plopped onto the Fenway turf.

The right-hander recovered to retire Trot Nixon on a groundout to second base, preserving the shutout and the Yankees’ 1-0 victory, in which Mussina outdueled an excellent 8 1/3-inning effort by Boston’s David Cone.

''Part of me didn't want him to do it, because I was the last to do it,'' said Cone, who pitched a perfect game for the Yankees in July 1999. ''But part of me wanted him to do it.''

Mussina had come close to no-hitters and perfect games a few times previously; as a member of the Orioles, Mussina retired the first 25 Cleveland Indians on May 30, 1997, surrendering a one-out single to Sandy Alomar Jr., and he set down the first 23 Detroit Tigers on Aug. 4, 1998, before Frank Catalanotto doubled.

He’d also pitched a one-hitter for Baltimore on Aug. 1, 2000, against the Minnesota Twins, with Ron Coomer’s seventh-inning single serving as the only blemish. But for Mussina, the evening at Fenway would be remembered as the one that got away.

“I’m going to think about that pitch until I retire,” Mussina said at the time.