Byline: Bill Ballou

COLUMN: Red Sox

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - In the first game of an Aug. 9, 1988, doubleheader at old County Stadium in Milwaukee, rotund Brewers DH Joey Meyer led off the last of the ninth inning by hitting a dinky, opposite-field fly ball off the bottom of the

Meyer, who weighed 260 and had a .251 career average, hit the home run off Roger Clemens.

After the game, asked if he was surprised that a batter such as Meyer would hit a home run off a pitcher such as Clemens, Sox manager Joe Morgan responded, "He had a bat in his hands, didn't he?"

The ultimate appeal of baseball is not that it is played on warm summer days and nights, on manicured lawns and groomed red soil, so much as its complete and utter unpredictability, and the idea that a Joey Meyer would beat a Roger Clemens is no more absurd than the idea that the Red Sox could win a game like they did at Fenway Park on Thursday night.

Every house of worship in New England should be filled with believers this weekend, because what the Sox did in beating Tampa Bay, 8-7, in Game 5 of a suddenly compelling ALCS has to be prima facie evidence that there is life after death.

It wasn't that Boston came back to win. It is from where the Sox came back to win that made what happened completely improbable. They were three innings - nine outs - away from having endured the worst three consecutive postseason games in franchise history - and at Fenway Park no less.

Then, beginning with rookie Jed Lowrie's double to lead off the seventh, the Red Sox had four hits in six at-bats, one more than they had in the previous six innings. The fourth hit was a three-run homer by David Ortiz to cut the Rays' lead from 7-1 to 7-4. J.D. Drew's two-run homer in the eighth keyed a three-run rally, then Drew got the game-winning hit with two out in the bottom of the ninth.

Down 3 games to 1, down on the scoreboard, 7-0, the Red Sox had prevailed in one of the great games - no matter what the weekend holds - in team history.

And how many Sox fans woke up yesterday morning to a "Dewey Defeats Truman" moment?

"No question. Without a doubt," Lowrie said here yesterday, reflecting on the suggestion that Thursday night was one of the best baseball games he had ever played in. "I've had a couple of walk-off hits this year, but to be part of a game like that is a feeling that will stay with me, I'm sure, probably forever.

"You know, while it was all going on, it was surreal. It was hard to believe it was actually happening. And then it was over, and the reaction was like, `Hey - we just won that game.'"

"It was," left fielder Jason Bay said, "one of the most amazing things I've ever been a part of on a baseball field. And not taking anything away from what happened - we've still got two games left."

Perhaps. Tampa Bay still leads the series, 3 games to 2. There is only one game left for Boston if it wins tonight, and the Sox are hoping they can maintain the momentum they created in the final three innings on Thursday. But can they?

When the Sox won Game 6 of the '75 World Series in nearly as remarkable fashion, it meant nothing. When Boston won Game 5 of the '86 ALCS thanks to Dave Henderson's home run in Anaheim, the Angels were dead and the Sox came back from a similar 3-games-to-1 deficit to win. When the Mets won the Mookie Wilson game in the '86 World Series, Boston seemed destined to lose Game 7, and did.

Momentum often carries over, but not always.

Momentum is more likely, as Terry Francona often says, the next day's starting pitcher, and for the Red Sox, that is a sub-par Josh Beckett.

Perhaps Beckett will return to form tonight. Perhaps his teammates will hit Rays pitching for nine innings the way they did for three on Thursday night. If so, then momentum means a lot. If not, the Red Sox will have to be content with the memories of one of the greatest games ever played at Fenway Park to warm them through the winter, and when you come to think of it, there are a lot of teams and fans in baseball who will not be so fortunate.

NAME: BOSTON RED SOX