Miami ? Now look who’s the team to beat in this World Series.

Cool, confident and even a little bit cocky, the Florida Marlins are just one win from another championship after beating the banged-up and bumbling New York Yankees, 6-4, in Game 5 Thursday night.

Brad Penny pumped his fist like crazy when he escaped his final threat, and Alex Gonzalez struck again with his Hall of Fame-bound bat as the Marlins seized a 3-2 lead with a surprisingly easy victory.

“I think the whole country now really sees what kind of players these guys are,” Marlins manager Jack McKeon said.

Down 6-1, the Yankees again did not give up. But when Bernie Williams’ bid for a tying two-run homer in the ninth was caught a few feet from the wall, their best chance was gone.

“It was a little scary,” McKeon said.

The sellout crowd of 65,975 at Pro Player Stadium pulsated all evening as Florida moved to the brink of an amazing upset. One man paid tribute in his own way — in the late innings, he ran across the entire outfield wearing only a Marlins cap.

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner merely could shake his head after seeing this sudden reversal of fortune. The Boss’ club looked like a shell of itself, hardly the caliber of team that has won four of the last seven championships.

Florida starter Brad Penny is pumped after getting the final out in the seventh inning against New York's Bernie Williams. The Marlins won, 6-4, Thursday in Miami.

Slumping Alfonso Soriano was benched, Jason Giambi was hurt, and starter David Wells left after one inning with an injury, leaving a lineup more suited to play Tampa Bay in June than Florida in October. Giambi hit a home run in the ninth as a pinch hitter to make it 6-3.

Earlier this week, after Mike Mussina sent the Yankees to their second straight 6-1 win in Game 3, it looked as if they simply might overwhelm the wild-card Marlins and take the title in Miami. At least, it might have appeared that way to anyone who had never seen Florida.

Not anymore, not after Florida won in extra innings in Game 4 after blowing a lead in the ninth and then held on in its final home game of the season.

Still, the Marlins’ path to their second title in seven years is a treacherous one that leads right through Yankee Stadium.

Game 2 winner Andy Pettitte tries to save New York’s season when he starts Game 6 Saturday night. Ever cautious, McKeon did not announce his starter, even after this victory.

This will mark the first time since 1981 that the Yankees faced elimination at home in the World Series. That year, the Los Angeles Dodgers finished them off in Game 6.

The Florida Marlins celebrate on the field after beating New York. The Marlins knocked off the Yankees, 6-4, Thursday night at Pro Player Stadium in Miami to take a 3-2 lead in the World Series.

“We haven’t been down this road many times,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

Penny mowed down the Yankees for seven innings, giving up one earned run to earn his second win of the Series. He also took the opener, an impressive week for a guy who went 14-10 this year and lost his rotation spot in the NLCS after a bad outing.

“They got me a lead early, and it’s nice to go up there with a big lead,” Penny said.

Bothered by an apparent blister, Penny gave up an RBI single to Derek Jeter in the seventh. Down 6-2, New York went on to load the bases with two outs before Williams — baseball’s career postseason leaders in homers and RBIs — hit a routine fly that got Penny celebrating.

Dontrelle Willis pitched a scoreless eighth and reliever Braden Looper gave up Giambi’s homer in the ninth. The Yankees never give up, and Jeter followed with a single for his third hit.

After Enrique Wilson’s RBI double, Ugueth Urbina took over and faced the tying run. A night after giving up pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra’s tying, two-run triple with two outs in the ninth, Urbina got Williams on the long fly ball.

“I thought when he first hit it, it had a shot,” Torre said.

Urbina retired Hideki Matsui on a grounder to first for his second save.

“I knew they might get close, but we were going to close them out,” McKeon said.

Penny also contributed at the plate. His two-run single made it 3-1 in the third, an inning keyed by Gonzalez’s RBI double. Gonzalez was the star in Game 4 with a 12th-inning homer for a 4-3 victory.

Wells was forced to leave after the first inning, the victim of back spasms. Jose Contreras relieved and took the loss with three shaky innings.

Florida's Jeff Conine, left, Derrek Lee, center, and Ivan Rodriguez celebrate after Rodriguez and Conine scored on Mike Lowell's single. The Marlins defeated the Yankees, 6-4, Thursday night in Miami.

New York’s defense didn’t help a lot, either. Wilson, subbing for Soriano, threw away a ball in a rundown that set up Mike Lowell’s two-run single in the fifth for a 6-1 lead.

Giambi was pulled from the starting lineup because of a bad left knee and replaced by Nick Johnson. Soriano also pinch hit, and struck out for the 26th time in this postseason.

Wells, who joked about his poor conditioning a day earlier, walked off the mound with a pained expression after the first inning. When David Dellucci pinch hit for Wells in the second, it was clear this was serious and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman left his seat in the stands and scooted up an aisle.

Contreras had already been heating up when he came in to replace Wells, and the Cuban right-hander went right to work. Since he wasn’t suddenly summoned with no time to prepare, Contreras was not entitled to any extra warmup pitches, according to baseball’s Rule 8.03.

“He had plenty of time,” Torre said. “He looked like he was getting anxious.”

Contreras retired his first two batters before issuing two walks and Gonzalez hit a drive that bounced over the wall in right-center field for an RBI double.

That brought up Penny, and the big pitcher with a .143 career average reached out and hit a shot past Wilson for a two-run single and a 3-1 lead.

Juan Pierre continued to cause problems for the Yankees with an RBI double in the fourth. Derrek Lee led off with a single and scored his second run of the game after moving up on Penny’s sacrifice.

Jeter quickly got into the swing, leading off the game with a single. Wilson followed with a bunt single that Lee charged from first base and threw away for an error, letting Jeter reach third. Williams made it 1-0 with a sacrifice fly.

Notes: Wells’ outing was the shortest start in the Series since 1984 when San Diego’s Mark Thurmond retired only one batter in Game 5 at Detroit. … Jeter is the only player to have a hit in all five games. … Conine has 22 hits this postseason, three shy of the record shared by Marquis Grissom of Atlanta (1995) and Darin Erstad of Anaheim (2002).