The Yankees find themselves in a situation that roughly approximates the pennant scenarios of 1948, 1949, 1978, and even 2004 – they face a sudden-death series against the Red Sox, for all intents and purposes a playoff series. The Bombers have, of course, emerged triumphant from each of these September meetings, and until last year, reigned supreme in October. But on each one of these occasions, they had their doubters.

In 1949, the Yankees led the Red Sox for virtually the entire season, yet no less an observer than the great columnist Red Smith left them for dead as early as August 28, when the team’s biggest run producer looked to have been lost for the season. “[I] declare, without reservation or equivocation,” he wrote, “that the Yankees lost the 1949 pennant… when Tommy Henrich plastered himself against a concrete wall and dislodged an assortment of vertebrae.”

In the event, Boston took a one-game lead into the final series of the season against the Yankees. All they had to do was win one of two and the pennant would be theirs.

Allie Reynolds started the first game for the Yankees against 25-game winner Mel Parnell. The Yankees were losing 1-0 in the third inning when Reynolds gave up three straight walks and a single. Throwing the book out the window, manager Casey Stengel called for Joe Page, the Mariano Rivera of the day.

“How far can you go?” Stengel asked the left-hander.

“A long way,” Page replied. He went all the way. He walked the first two batters he faced to put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole, but came back to fan the next two hitters. After that, he was untouchable, allowing only one hit in 6 2/ 3 innings of relief. The offense took care of the rest.

The season was now tied with one game to play. Phil Rizzuto led off the second game with a triple. Boston manager Joe McCarthy played the infield back, conceding the run on a ground out. Henrich, who was playing with a corset to support his damaged spine, tapped to second to score the run. Thanks to starting pitcher Vic Raschi, the score remained 1-0 through the eighth inning, at which point the Yankees drove a truck through the Boston bullpen, aided in part by a Henrich home run. They survived the inevitable Red Sox rally to finally take the pennant.

This year, the Yankees need not even be as creative as Stengel was in 1949. They just need to play their game. The turning point of last year’s final meeting with the Red Sox was the crucial moment when the Yankees stopped doing the things they had been famous for since 1998.

With a 3-0 lead, Joe Torre’s men acted as if the series were already won. They stopped taking pitches and running up high pitch counts. Rather than challenge Boston’s shaky pitching, they swung at anything that came their way. It was as if they were all anticipating the Robinson Cano school of baseball. The Red Sox, who had also adopted the take-and-rake school of hitting, had been the team hacking in the early going. As of Game 4, they switched places with the Yankees, waiting the pitchers out until they could get to the soft part of the staff.

The 2005 Yankees have the benefit of hindsight; they may not be thinking of the improvisational quality of the 1949 victory over the Red Sox, but they do know about last year. They do know that confronting good hitting with bad pitching leads to a bad outcome. They should realize that free swinging was a key part of the problem as well.

In short, what history should teach the Yankees is that if they want to win, they’ll find a way to use the players that will help them win. If not, they’ll swing randomly and pitch Alan Embree. It’s all in their control.

Mr. Goldman is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.