01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, September 24, 2003

BOSTON -- By game No. 157, you'd think the Red Sox would have lost their capacity to surprise.

Think again.

Just when you've seen it all with the 2003 Red Sox, they show you more. Just when you figure they've staged every dramatic comeback there is to stage, they come up with a new and improved ending.

When Todd Walker stepped to the plate in the ninth inning, the Red Sox had managed just five hits, trailed 5-2 and were down to their last out. For the previous 8 2/3 innings, the Sox had failed to come up with a hit with runners in scoring position.

But Walker's line-drive, three-run homer into the visitor's bullpen tied it at 5-5. Leading off the next inning, David Ortiz drove a 2-and-1 changeup from Kurt Ainsworth into the Monster Seats.

Then, it was pandemonium on the field. Sox players sprinted from the dugout en masse and mobbed Ortiz in a scene virtually unprecedented for the regular season.

It was as if someone had flashed ahead to next week, and this was a vital playoff game, not a last-week win against a sub-.500 team.

Grady Little wasn't shy about putting the game into perspective.

"By far," said the manager, "that's the biggest (win) of the season. We've had a number like this, but this rises above all the rest."

Indeed, there's no shortage of candidates. Last night's win was the eighth walkoff win of the season. It was Boston's fifth win when trailing after eight innings.

Take your pick. Little chose last night.

"I don't know -- I'd say this was about average for the year," deadpanned principal owner John Henry.

They're both right. Because it's the final week of the season and because the Sox have yet to nail down a playoff spot, Little is entitled to his claim. And because they've done it so many times, against so many teams, Henry's on the mark, too.

Perhaps no statistic better encapsulates the remarkable resiliency of this team better than this: almost exactly one-fourth (23 of 93, or 24.7 percent) of the Sox wins have come in their last at-bat.

Think about that. The Red Sox have more wins in their final at-bat than the Detroit Tigers have at home all season.

These sort of late-inning heroics have become almost commonplace. You'd think the players would be jaded. Instead, they seem delighted by their ability to top themselves.

"This team has been doing it all year," said catcher Jason Varitek. "But from an emotional standpoint, I'd say this is funnest game I've played in."

Walker went a step further, calling the homer and the game itself "by far the biggest thrill of my life at this point."

And that's what makes this team not only fun to watch, but also eminently likable. In an era when fans maintain that players are mere mercenaries, concerned only with themselves and their own bottom line, these Red Sox break the mold -- not just for Sox clubs, but pro athletes in general.

The welcoming party at the top of the dugout for Walker and the scrum there to greet Ortiz at the plate looked like something out of the Little League World Series.

"Everybody was hyper . . . everybody was. . . . it was a great feeling," said Ortiz, understandably at a loss for words.

Sometimes, it really is reduced to boys playing a game.

Watch enough games like this and your mind starts to wander. See enough improbable comebacks and you can't help but flash forward to next month, when the stakes get higher. Experience enough nights like this, and the concerns about the bullpen fritter away.

Character and resolve and the late-inning three-run homer can absolve a lot of baseball sins.

Perhaps it was appropriate that the Red Sox won as they did on the night on which they set yet another attendance record for their franchise. For the fourth straight year, the Sox set a new club record, and for the sixth straight season, they've improved on the previous year's mark.

Most of the 33,723 were still on hand when Ortiz delivered his game-winner.

Asked if he felt tempted to vault from his seat and congratulate Ortiz along with the rest of the players, Henry smiled and nodded.

"Along with rest of the 34,000," he said. "The fans were all there at the end of the game. They expected them to come back. And damned if they didn't."

Again.