NEW YORK — Red Sox-Yankees it ain't, but Fox and MLB will take it:

Yankees-Angels? The love-'em-or-hate-'em Bronx Bombers in the ALCS for the first time in five years, against a team from the second-largest TV market — one with no NFL franchise as a distraction?

Better yet, another L.A. team, Joe Torre's Dodgers, possibly looming for the World Series?

That should be enough to draw at least some of Football Nation's eyeballs for a couple of weeks.

The last time the Yankees got this far, to Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS against Boston, they drew monster numbers (for baseball), an average of 31.5 million viewers.

That game attracted 19.4 percent of U.S. households, the highest such figure for the ALCS since 1986 and a number no one has come close to since.

With the Phillies advancing last night, the final four features three of the nation's four largest markets.

Absent the Red Sox, though, the key is the Yankees.

"With the Yankees advancing, I think it's fair to say we were sitting with a winning hand either way," Fox Sports president Ed Goren said. "There's no question that right out of the shoot, game to game, you'll see an increase in ratings over the last couple of years."

MLB and its TV friends hope the buzz in southern California from having two teams in the LCS helps. Goren called the L.A.-area ratings for last year's NLCS — which included the Dodgers — "disappointing." But there was an uptick during this year's division series that might carry over.

Though Goren cannot openly root for certain teams, you can assume his first choice would be a Yankees-Dodgers finale. What about a first-ever Freeway Series featuring the two L.A. teams?

"I've seen that movie," Goren said. "It was Yankees-Mets (in 2000, which was not a ratings hit) ... I hope to get more than one home market."

EX-BIG LEAGUER JANSEN DIES, 89

Larry Jansen, the winning pitcher for the New York Giants in the 1951 playoff game decided by Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World," has died. He was 89.

The San Francisco Giants said Jansen died at his home in Oregon on Saturday.

Jansen spent nine years in the major leagues, making his biggest mark with the Giants during their pennant-winning season. He won 23 games in 1951, including one of the biggest in team — and baseball — history.

Jansen, in relief of Sal Maglie, struck out two batters in the top of the ninth before the Giants rallied with four runs in the bottom half of the inning — three on Thomson's homer off Ralph Branca — to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-4 in the third and deciding playoff game.

The Astros will interview 10 candidates over the next week to become the team's next manager, including former skipper Phil Garner.

Houston fired manager Cecil Cooper on Sept. 21. Third base coach Dave Clark was promoted to interim manager for the final two weeks and the team said yesterday that Clark will be the first man interviewed for the full-time position.

The other candidates include: minor league coordinator Al Pedrique, who became third base coach when Clark was promoted; former Brewers manager Ned Yost, San Diego hitting coach Randy Ready, former Arizona manager Bob Melvin, former Washington manager Manny Acta and current Boston Red Sox coaches Brad Mills and Tim Bogar.

The Astros have also been granted permission to interview Philadelphia bench coach Pete Mackanin when the Phillies complete postseason play.

Clark and Pedrique will lead off the interviews tomorrow.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said yesterday that the Cleveland Indians had asked for permission to speak to pitching coach John Farrell, but that he said he would like to stay in Boston. Farrell would be allowed to interview if he wanted, Epstein said.