Put this game into late September or October and we'd be talking ESPN ''Instant Classic,'' with videocassettes available free with your subscription to Sports Illustrated.

How do we explain what is going on at Fenway Park this weekend to those athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Germany who are here for tomorrow's road race? How do we explain all the commotion in that big old green structure less than a mile from the Marathon finish line?

The Red Sox beat the Yankees by one run again yesterday, winning, 7-6, after trailing, 4-0, in the first, and 6-3 in the eighth. Second-year player Shea Hillenbrand launched the winning two-run homer off the best closer of all time in the bottom of the eighth, and the game ended when Jason Varitek caught Alfonso Soriano attempting to steal second with two out in the ninth.

A bold gamble by Yankees manager Joe Torre?

''Actually, no,'' said Varitek. ''Statistically speaking, they had a 100 percent chance of being right on that play.''

Varitek was 0 for 12 (and Sox catchers 0 for 13 altogether) nailing base stealers when pinch runner Soriano broke on a 2-1 pitch from Ugueth Urbina.

There was some justice for the Boston catcher, who has struggled to throw out runners in this first month of his comeback from a broken elbow. Varitek actually has thrown quite well, but his pitchers haven't given him much of a chance, and Urbina has been known to make things even tougher by throwing a pitch other than the one that was called.

Yesterday Urbina Cowboy threw the changeup Varitek ordered, and the catcher made a perfect peg to Nomar Garciaparra to end the game. It was an unusual and dramatic ending. Sox players poured from their dugout and Brian Daubach, who hadn't played, jumped into Varitek's arms.

''Everybody likes each other here,'' said Varitek (imagine anybody trying to make that claim last season), ''and everybody on the team knows I've been throwing the ball well and they are excited.''

Exuberant citizens of Red Sox Nation no doubt now are thinking sweep. That'll be tough to do with Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte going today and tomorrow, but the Sox are delivering an early message that they may have changed their colors since the disgrace of last fall.

''They [Yankees] can look over their shoulders now,'' said Varitek. ''To beat a team that's been on top of the division, you gain respect.''

Boston manager Grady Little, now 2-0 lifetime against the Yankees, said, ''After 19 games against the Yankees this year, I think you're going to see a lot of games like that.''

It should be some measure of the game's entertainment that we have reached this point in the story and have yet to mention Pedro Martinez. The ace was roughed up for four runs in the first inning, but righted himself and hung around into the sixth. He did not allow a hit in his final 3 2/3 innings and retired 11 of the last 14 batters he faced, but Pedro is still not Pedro and everybody knows it.

''I didn't feel like coming out when I did because I was feeling better and better,'' said Martinez. ''I don't want to force these guys to go out there and pick me up ... ''

But that's exactly what they did yesterday. And when Hillenbrand cracked his non-cheapie homer into the screen, Martinez was the first player to greet him on the dugout steps.

''That shows you what type of person Pedro is,'' said Hillenbrand, who is hitting .400 with four homers and 12 RBIs. ''He could have pouted, but he's a gamer, truly a team player.''

Naturally, owner John Henry was first into the clubhouse after the game, and we suspect he then went to the parking garage with jumper cables offering to help any fans who might have inadvertently worn down their car batteries during the game.

That's the way it's going so far at Fenway this year. Owners mingle with fans, players pitch in to help one another, fans sing ''Sweet Caroline'' at the end of the eighth, and everybody goes home feeling just swell. It's so very un-Sox-like.

Explain this to our Marathon visitors from around the globe? Impossible. Better we should just tell them that Fenway these days is like a 26-mile downhill race with the wind at your back and no Heartbreak Hill.

By Dan Shaughnessy

This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 4/14/2002.

Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.