SPOTLIGHT HERO: Alex Gonzalez The Marlins' shortstop snaps out of a 5-for-53 slump to hit the first Series walkoff homer against the Yankees since Bill Mazeroski did it for the Pirates in 1960. GOAT: Alfonso Soriano Another poor night, going 1-for-6 with two more strikeouts. He is 3-for-18 (.168) in the series and already has set the postseason record for strikeouts with 25. CLOSER LOOK Alex Gonzalez's heroics wouldn't have been possible had the Marlins not staged an epic two-out rally against Roger Clemens in the first inning. GO FIGURE 6 -- 300-game winners who have started a World Series game: Roger Clemens, Steve Carlton, Grover Alexander, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Cy Young. 7 -- Consecutive extra-inning World Series games won by the Yankees before Game 4. 13 -- Players who have hit walkoff homers in a World Series game, three by Yankees and three against the Yankees.

MIAMI -- We knew, of course, that the Florida Marlins would not go quietly. They are a rowdy baseball bunch, a rap-playing, foul lyrics blasting, clutch kind of team.

At any point in any game, they can look as down as a gator in the sewers. And then, at the last moment, they can snap a win from the jaws of defeat. That's their modus operandi. That's their pride.

"You can't explain it," left fielder Jeff Conine said. "It just seems to happen."

It happened again Wednesday night, in Game 4 of the World Series, just as it has so many times this year. The Marlins were ahead, but when the New York Yankees came back to do what the Yankees do -- tying the score this time with a two-out, two-strike, two-run triple in the ninth inning -- Florida looked beaten.

It's like this: When the Yankees come back on you, you're supposed to stay down.

But, no, the Marlins waited until the bottom of the 12th, after getting out of some major-league jams, and beat the Yanks on a home run from a lightweight shortstop who came into the game hitting .111 in the Series and just .102 in the postseason.

Alex Gonzalez has been so bad that everyone had been asking manager Jack McKeon whether it was time to pull the slick shortstop out of the lineup. McKeon didn't. And, in the 12th, Gonzalez came up at just the right time.

Somewhere, Sammy Sosa and Mark Prior and Kerry Wood and the rest of the Chicago Cubs -- if they have the heart to watch this World Series at all -- are shaking their heads knowingly. So are the Philadelphia Phillies, who gave up to the Marlins' lucky ghosts in the last week of the season as the Marlins won the wild card. So are so many other teams.

The thing about this Series is that the Marlins know -- and everyone else knows, too -- that this could have been over already. The Marlins stole Game 1, 3-2, with seven singles and some awful clutch hitting by the Yankees. They were beaten in both Games 2 and 3, by identical 6-1 scores. And in Wednesday's game, after getting to Roger Clemens in the first inning, they were shut down until Gonzalez hit his homer, 11 innings later.

In short, the Yankees' two wins have been impressive. The Marlins' wins have been escape jobs.

But that's the Marlins. That's their essence. They win on points, not knockouts. And the Yankees on Wednesday couldn't muster up that one big punch when they most needed it.

After fighting back to tie the score on Ruben Sierra's ninth-inning triple, the Yankees could have taken control of this Series. They could have beaten down the Marlins, finally. But Aaron Boone couldn't get Sierra home after the triple. Jason Giambi had a chance to drive in a run in the 10th but struck out. The Yanks had men at first and second with nobody out in the 11th, and then had the bases loaded with one out, but Boone struck out and backup catcher John Flaherty popped up to third to end that threat.

"It's a battle for us," said Yankees manager Joe Torre, "and it's a battle for them."

The Yankees still should have the edge in this thing, if there's an edge to be had. Two of those last three games are in Yankee Stadium. The Yankees' pitchers have, for the most part, held down the Marlins. Florida has scored only nine runs in the four games.

Yet ... the Series is tied. The Marlins are excited. They are ready.

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"It's fair game now," center fielder Juan Pierre said.

"I think [Wednesday] was as close to a must-win game as you can get," third baseman Mike Lowell said. "But [Thursday]? You can definitely apply some pressure when you're one win away."

This one will be settled in New York, in either Game 6 on Saturday or Game 7 on Sunday. It won't be easy for either team.

With the Marlins, it never is.

"We just wish," said Conine, "one time, we'd have a yawner."

Not in this Series.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.