BOSTON -- In the cramped Fenway Park visitor's clubhouse, reporters and members of the New York Yankees attempted to avoid stepping on one another. Away from the fray, in the trainer's room, Mike Mussina tried to swallow both a postgame protein shake and the disappointment he felt.

Twenty minutes earlier, Mussina was a single strike away from becoming the third Yankees pitcher to throw a perfect game in four years when Red Sox pinch-hitter Carl Everett fought off a high fastball and deposited in into left-center field, ending Mussina's bid for history.

One by one, Mussina's teammates had wandered into the room to offer a mix of congratulations and condolences. Eventually, he emerged, walking outside the clubhouse to underneath the left-field grandstand.

Pinned against a brick wall by a herd of reporters, Mussina didn't try to fool anyone.

"I was disappointed," he said after holding on for a 1-0, one-hit shutout. "I'm still disappointed. It's probably just not meant to be."

Indeed, while Yankee history may have been on Mussina's side, his personal history wasn't.

David Wells threw a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins in 1998 and David Cone matched him a year later against the Monteal Expos. But Mussina hadn't enjoyed the same late-inning luck.

On Aug. 4, 1998, he lost a perfect-game bid against Detroit with two outs in the eighth when Frank Catalanotto hit a double. On May 30, he retired the first 25 hitters before Cleveland's Sandy Alomar broke it up with a single.

Later that same season, he lost a no-hitter when Milwaukee's Jose Valentin led off the eighth with a single.

Through eight innings Sunday night, Mussina never even had a close call, going to three-ball counts only twice. But still locked in a scoreless duel with Cone, of all people, he wasn't even assured of getting a decision.

Heading into Sunday night, Mussina's run support was third-worst in the American League. Despite a 3.55 ERA, pitching for a first-place team, Mussina was just two games over .500 (13-11).

"It was flashing through my mind," Mussina admitted, "that I was going to go nine innings and we weren't going to score and I was going to end up with one of those asterisk jobs' and we were going to go until the 11th inning."

In the top of the ninth, Mussina's luck changed. Following a leadoff single by Tino Martinez and an error by Lou Merloni on a grounder by Paul O'Neill, Enrique Wilson stroked a double to right, scoring Clay Bellinger, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner for Martinez.

In the ninth, Shea Hillenbrand hit a grounder to the right of Bellinger, who went sprawling to glove the grounder, then fed Mussina covering for the first out and denying Boston's its best chance yet of a hit.

"I was in the clubhouse, watching the game around the fifth inning," recounted Bellinger, "and I heard (ESPN announcer) Jon Miller say there hadn't been a tough play. After I made the play, I kind of figured it was going to happen."

When Mussina struck out Merloni for the second out, it seemed more of a certainty, particularly with Everett (1-for-9, seven strikeouts against Mussina) coming to the plate as a pinch-hitter.

"You never think it's going to happen," said manager Joe Torre, "until there are two outs and two strikes. Then you feel like he's going to get it."

But after getting ahead 1-and-2, Mussina threw a fastball which Everett directed into left-center.

"As soon as he hit it," said Derek Jeter, "I figured it was going to fall."

Torre defended Mussina's choice to throw a fastball while ahead in the count.

"He had struck him out with a fastball before many times," said Torre. "Mike knows what he's doing. And late in the game, you're going to have better command of the fastball than the breaking ball."

Mussina then regained his composure and got Trot Nixon on a roller to second.

The irony, of course, was that Mussina, who had already lost three times to the Red Sox this season, was bidding for history against a team which made a somewhat lackluster and late attempt to sign him last winter.

"What does this have to do with this game?" he asked defensively. "Next question."

Inside the Yankees clubhouse, Jeter looked almost as downcast as his pitcher.

"I feel disappointed," he said, "because Moose had great stuff."

Just not the perfect result.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal writes for ESPN.com.