BOSTON – A fire in the neighborhood had caused a large cloud of black smoke that was blocking the city skyline overlooking right field at Fenway Park. The crowd was standing as an overdue Alex Rodriguez walked to the plate with two outs in the ninth. The wind was blowing out, and Keith Foulke had yet to blow a save this season.

Stationed in his usual spot behind home plate, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein had a good view of it all.

“I turned to the guy next to me and said the apocalypse is upon us,” Epstein said. “The tying run is coming to the plate in the form of A-Rod. He hasn’t gotten a hit all series. Foulke’s facing him. Right field’s on fire. Apparently we’re all going to die. I said this is the end of the world.”

It may have felt that way to some Red Sox fans if Alex Rodriguez’s first hit in the four-game series was a homer instead of a single. It turned out to be meaningless single when Foulke did what the Red Sox are paying him to do. He struck out Jason Giambi to preserve a 5-4 victory.

And that gave the Red Sox a 3-1 edge in the series.

“It all went according to script,” Red Sox owner John Henry said while surrounded by fans as he was leaving the park.

“Any time you beat the Yankees with their number one on the hill and our number five, you have to feel very good about it. To win three out of four, as banged up as we are, made for a great weekend.”

Since 1967, only one four-game series at Fenway has drawn a higher total attendance. And the Red Sox fans let A-Rod know they thoroughly enjoyed watching him go 1-for-17 with six strikeouts.

“I’m not disappointed in the effort or the way guys go about playing,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “It’s the result that we’re all disappointed with. But that can happen during the course of the year. We just have to get things rolling.”

An argument could be made that the Red Sox lineup Yankees starter Kevin Brown faced wasn’t as potent as the Devil Rays lineup he pitched to in his first three starts.

Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon are on the disabled list. First baseman David McCarty started in place of Kevin Millar, who was given a day off, and Cesar Crespo filled in for Mark Bellhorn (sore elbow) at second.

And consider the annual payroll of each team’s starting lineup Monday, including pitchers – $44.5 million for the Red Sox, $104.5 million for the Yankees.

Brown, who is making $15.7 million, could not protect a 4-1 lead. The Red Sox scored once in each of their last four innings. Four of their runs were scored with two outs.

“I feel like I played all four games today,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “That was really something today. You can take any team, but in this atmosphere, to come back and play the way we did to find a way to win was unbelievable.”

Gabe Kapler, who twice forgot how many outs there were while running the bases earlier, atoned for his mental lapses by driving in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the eighth off Tom Gordon.

The Red Sox caught a break moments earlier when McCarty hit a towering fly ball to left. The wind blew the ball away from Hideki Matsui, and McCarty hustled into second with a one-out double.

“I saw the ball the whole time,” Matsui said. “I tried to avoid the sun and I (leaned toward left), then the wind blew it more toward center field than I was anticipating.”

McCarty moved to third on a groundout and scored when Kapler lined a 0-and-1 fastball to center. Before heading to the on-deck circle, Kapler said he took a peek at the scouting report on Gordon.

“He’s got a really live fastball and a good breaking ball,” Kapler said. “I figured my best bet was to hit the fastball. I looked for it and got a good pitch to hit.”

Manny Ramirez helped preserve the lead in the ninth with a running catch against The Wall, robbing Bernie Williams.

“I knew where the fence was,” Ramirez said. “I knew I was going to hit it pretty hard. I just wanted to try for the ball in that situation.”

It was a frustrating day for the Yankees, who left nine runners on base and 41 in the series.

Rodriguez made a throwing error in the seventh that allowed Pokey Reese to score the tying run. The Red Sox had runners on first and third with none out following back-to-back singles by Reese and Johnny Damon. After Mueller struck out, David Ortiz checked his swing on an inside pitch that broke his bat. The ball rolled to Rodriguez, who threw the ball into right field.

The Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the second against Bronson Arroyo. Travis Lee had a two-run double and scored on John Flaherty’s single. Arroyo avoided further damage by getting Williams to ground into an inning-ending double play with runners on first and second.

The Red Sox got a run back on Kapler’s single in the bottom half, but Giambi’s homer in the fourth restored the three-run lead. The Yankees wasted a chance to pad their cushion in the fifth, when Lee grounded into a double play with two on and two out.

Then Red Sox began the comeback in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs, Bill Mueller doubled and scored on David Ortiz’s single. Jason Varitek led off the sixth with a home to make it 4-3.

“I take credit for that (loss),” said Brown, who allowed four runs and nine hits in six innings. “I had a lead and I didn’t hold it. That’s always frustrating. Sometime you do it, sometimes you don’t. I didn’t have good location.”

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(c) 2004, The Hartford Courant

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AP-NY-04-19-04 2107EDT