WHEN will they ever learn? Now Curt Schilling knows, too. The Babe always has the last word when it comes to the Red Sox and Yankees.

Schilling became the latest victim of the Curse of the Bambino yesterday. The man who came to Boston proclaiming he was there to break The Curse may not pitch again this postseason and is facing right-ankle surgery.

If the Red Sox do beat the Yankees in the ALCS, they may well have to do it with Derek Lowe in the rotation instead of their ace Schilling.

Schilling is still scheduled to be the Game 5 starter, but he will be scratched unless the Red Sox can come up with a better brace to keep the tendon in his right ankle from flapping around.

“The tendon is snapping over the bone,” team doctor Bill Morgan explained last night before Game 2 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium.

“There are two tendons behind the outside bone, so it snapped in front of the bone,” the doctor added. “It continues to snap from the front and the back and we are using a bracing technique to hold it back where it belongs.”

The brace worked fine in bullpen sessions but it didn’t work Tuesday night in the heat of competition.

Sitting to Dr. Morgan’s left was a somber Red Sox GM Theo Epstein. “The tendon began to sublux and Curt’s delivery was altered and that’s why he was ineffective and that’s why we got him out of the game,” Epstein said.

When healthy, Schilling is dominant. He came into the series with the same dominant mindset, even though physically he was not up to the task.

Yankee fans, of course, have had enough of Schilling’s tongue flapping. The day before Game 1, the right-hander boldly said, “I’m not sure I can think of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up.”

Schilling didn’t put up. He lasted three innings and surrendered six runs in the Yankees’ 10-7 victory.

Now the Red Sox are in a similar situation to the Yankees, who have suffered pitching injuries this season, too. This could be a monster-scoring series after a 17-run opening act in Game 1.

Epstein was wearing a tie last night. Maybe the Red Sox are trying to clean up their image a bit.

One thing is certain. The Red Sox weren’t joking around as much as they were before Game 1. When manager Terry Francona came into the news conference, he was as somber as his GM. Before the series, Francona joked that he wasn’t sure if his players even knew the outs in an inning.

“We’re going to give Schill every opportunity to pitch,” Francona said. “If he can’t, then we’ll adjust. And I have no doubt that we would have the ability to adjust.”

The “Aren’t We a Bunch of Wild & Crazy Guys” attitude the Red Sox have been parading around this season was toned down a notch. The self-proclaimed “idiots” were not quite as wild and crazy.

Schilling’s injury really put the pressure on Pedro Martinez, who started last night against Jon Lieber.

Now both teams have starting-pitching issues. Before this season started the Yankees never projected Lieber to be their No. 2 postseason starter, but injuries changed their thinking. Now the Red Sox are going to have to change their mound mentality as well, unless Schilling can weather this storm, which appears unlikely.

Schilling immediately became the darling of Red Sox Nation when he joined the club. He became a regular on fan Web sites, and even called talk-radio hosts to let his feelings be known. He also starred in a commercial, where he learned to talk like a true Red Sox fan, using the term “Wicked hahd.”

Unless the Red Sox can find just the right bracing situation for Schilling, going to the World Series just became that much hahder.