PROVIDENCE -- The 11th-hour tightening race between the Red Sox and the Other Team is not going unnoticed by Sox fans, despite the warm, comfy reversal of the 86-year-old Curse just four years ago.

Joe McGowan, walking on the connector between Providence Place mall and Westin Hotel, sported a weathered-looking Sox cap.

"When I get home, I'm changing my hat for the Patriots hat," offered McGowan, a Brown University graduate who now lives in Florida but has family in the area.

McGowan quickly made it clear he was kidding. But he said the pitching hasn't been the same. The team has "burned out" Daisuke Matsuzaka through use this season, he felt. At the same time, he said, the New York Yankees' pitching seems to have improved.

Joe Fitzpatrick, a Johnson & Wales University student from the Boston area, sported a Sox cap but conceded he has not watched some of the games as the race has grown closer.

"A little bit nervous," he said of how he's feeling about the situation.

Still, Fitzpatrick is a "die-hard" Sox fan. He did watch the most recent game.

"I still support them -- you've got to support, it's loyalty," he said.

Tommy McCahey of Providence, sitting out front of the Coffee King on Fountain Street, pushed aside any notion that the closer race puts any dent in his psyche.

"No panic, no panic," he said, especially given that the Sox finally did it in 2004, vanquishing their foes.

And something else: "The Yankees have the A-Rod curse," McCahey said of Alex Rodriguez.

Sure, the Yanks look like they're reeling in the Sox like a fish firmly on a hook, but come post-season, McCahey predicted Rodriguez will keep the Yanks from doing much more than talking about the 20th Century.

"It's destiny," he said. "A-Rod's gonna choke ..."

Besides, McCahey added, his young son has already experienced a World Series victory -- something Yanks' fans children can't say yet.

McCahey grew up around Yankee fans, so a close race in September is hardly enough to affect him.

"I'm as big a Red Sox fan as there is," he said.

Outside City Hall, Melissa, a Providence resident who would not give her last name, had Red Sox sunglasses tucked back over her head. But she expressed a less optimistic view.

"I think it's just aggravating," she said.

She said she missed a few games herself as things have gotten closer.

"It makes me tense to watch it," she said.

For Dan Levesque of Mashpee, Mass., the effect has been the opposite: He's watching the games closely.

As a Sox fan knows, the suddenly close race "is typical," Levesque said.

But he did question whether the trade for closer Eric Gagne, which came in exchange for two Sox players and lost two recent crucial games, hurt the team's "karma" a bit.