09:45 AM EDT on Tuesday, October 14, 2003

BOSTON -- You could cut the tension with a knife, right? There was a palpable sense of worry, wasn't there? It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop, wasn't it.

Well, not exactly.

A little more than an hour before they were to take the field for the start of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, the Red Sox clubhouse was transformed into a makeshift comedy club.

Bill Cosby, a longtime associate of Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, toured the room, stopping at nearly every player's locker, telling jokes. When he got to team prankster/head cowboy Kevin Millar, Millar unveiled his imitation of the comedian, sending Cosby and the rest of the team into hysterics.

This, then, was how the Red Sox prepared themselves in the minutes before their latest, biggest game of the season. This was how they were handling the, ahem, unrelenting pressure of playoff baseball.

Remember, the Red Sox were supposed to be dead after Saturday. They lost Game 3, but worse still, they had lost their composure. They were dispirited and deflated. It all looked eerily similar to the 1999 ALCS, with the Red Sox winning once and the Yankees taking it from there.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson ANOTHER SHOT FROM TROT: Boston's Trot Nixon is mobbed after hitting a solo homer off Mike Mussina in the fifth inning last night to break a 1-1 tie.

In short, the season looked to be ending the way so many before have, with the Yankees headed for the World Series and the Red Sox headed home.

Except that last night they got another gem from Tim Wakefield, more big home runs from Todd Walker and Trot Nixon and another save from Scott Williamson. Suddenly, the Red Sox are very much alive.

After they had held off the Yankees last night, 3-2, the Red Sox didn't seem terribly surprised by the fact they were once again even with the New York Yankees, two games each. Not one bit.

"This team is so focused, so positive, you don't see any change from day to day," said Walker, who, in a perfect metaphor for this team's unlikely success, now holds the record for most homers in a single postseason. "That's why we've been able to win so many games the way we have. This team has got a lot of heart."

Then Walker stopped for a second, and in that instant, it was as if he experienced a moment of epiphany.

"I don't know why some people still don't understand that," he said. "But I'll tell you -- we're not going to give up."

These, of course, are different Red Sox. They're not beholden to the franchise's past. They don't care what happened yesterday.

Trailing the Yankees? So what. Lost the home field advantage? Big deal. Back down? Not now.

Last night was just another game, just another hurdle for these new and improved Red Sox -- now, with extra resiliency!

The fourth inning Saturday was supposed to have been the turning point in the series, the spot in which the Red Sox suddenly realized what they were dealing with, then folded.

After the field was cleared and hostilities were over, it was supposed to be all downhill for the Sox.

The Yankees were poised -- remember? The Red Sox were exposed.

Not last night.

Walker's homer gave them a 1-0 lead in the fourth, and after the Yankees tied the game in the top half of the next inning, the Red Sox grabbed the lead right back with their next opportunity.

Wakefield picked up right where he left off in Game 1, expertly moving his trademark knuckler up, down and across to the overmatched Yankee hitters.

Mike Timlin, who appears to have secretly struck some Joe Hardy-type deal, continued his perfect postseason, retiring all three hitters he faced in the eighth, making him 22-for-22 in the postseason. Never mind Nomar Garciaparra's failures or Bill Mueller's sudden inability to collect a hit -- Timlin's dominance in the set-up role stands as the most surprising development of this postseason.

Lesser teams have folded under the weight of the Yankees' postseason aura. Once the Yanks tied the Twins at 1-1 in the Division Series, you knew the A.L. Central champs had already taken their best shot and failed.

But the Red Sox aren't the Twins. There are too many players like Millar and Walker and Jason Varitek who aren't the least bit cowed by circumstance or setting.

If anything, the Yankees seemed like the team with the hangover from the weekend.

Catcher Jorge Posada seemed to be trying to hit each one of Wakefield's knuckleballs into Kenmore Square, resulting in two awkward strikeouts in his first two trips to the plate.

When he finally connected, his opposite-field liner was hit directly into Manny Ramirez's waiting glove in left.

Just in case, manager Grady Little tried a little gamesmanship of his own in the eighth. As the Fenway crowd hooted on reliever Jeff Nelson, who took part in the ugly bullpen incident Saturday, Little came out to have the umpires check to see whether Nelson was using his belt buckle to scuff the ball.

The message was obvious -- if you try to rattle our reliever (as the Yankees had done with Timlin in Game 1), we'll rattle yours.

No bowing down. No postseason stage fright.

"All we can do is give it our best," said Walker. "There's no reason to be uptight."

And there you have it. A Red Sox team with the October spotlight fixed squarely upon it, defiantly unafraid to lose.

What a concept.