BOSTON – It was a typical autumn day in New England yesterday: A brilliant morning with a brisk wind, a few puffy clouds and, everywhere you looked, the sight, sound, and smell of pinstripes hovering on the horizon and over the Red Sox in the standings.

Typical, but with a twist.

Way back when, or, to be more precise, going back to just before Game 4 of last year’s American League Championship Series, the spectre of the Yankees loomed vast and heavy around here on the psyche of both the Red Sox franchise and its followers.

Years of getting BFD’d (the ‘B’ and ‘D’ are for ‘Bucky’ and ‘Dent’) lent a pall that would usually deepen right around this time of year – or, as in just two autumns ago, deep into October when Grady Little placed too much faith in a tired Pedro Martinez.

But something happened here last October, when the Red Sox began their immortalized comeback against the Yankees in the ALCS in Games 4 through 7.The shock and awe of it all did not exactly obliterate generations of gloom, but it certainly did soften the hearts and minds of Red Sox followers considerably, to the point where the team’s current neck-and-neck status with the Yankees is not simply a god-awful experience to be endured until the last nail is finally driven in.

For the second time in less than a week yesterday, the Red Sox woke up in second place in the AL East standings, a half-game behind the Yankees, but around town and in the clubhouse, you wouldn’t know who was up and who was down. With the notable exceptions of Martinez and Derek Lowe, the same merry band of idiots that was traipsing around here last fall remains, reveling in cluelessness, joyful in their ignorance.

For all the reasons the Red Sox have to worry – a woeful bullpen, major questions in their starting rotation – they are opting to ignore them. They are loose, taking care of business on the field while having few cares off of it. By the middle of the afternoon, after the first game of a doubleheader against the Blue Jays, the Red Sox had shaved away that half game Yankee lead, but there was as little swagger after that game as there had been sweat before it.

Johnny Damon was getting peppered with questions about amphetamines, Tim Wakefield was deflecting doubts about his consistency, rookie reliever Jonathan Papelbon was expressing gratitude for being entrusted with the ball late in tight games in this final week of play. It was business as usual, and as usual, the Red Sox were simply biding their time.

When the Yankees caught up to the Red Sox in the standings on September 21, the sound of teeth gnashing could be heard here and there on sports radio, but the reaction was surprisingly muted given the stakes involved.

In their infinite wisdom, the MLB schedule makers decided that the Red Sox and Yankees should not only open the season and the second half of the season playing against each other, but should also wrap up together as well.

It’s just as well.

Last October, the exhilaration experienced in this region was matched by exhaustion, owing especially to the stomach-twisting drama of the last four games against the Yankees. Now that postseason elimination is a serious and legitimate threat, a lot of fans would not mind a little clarity or closure on the subject, and the sooner, the better. The afterglow from last October certainly still exists, but a lot of the gnawing hunger that preceded it has decidedly waned.

If the Red Sox were to be denied entry to the playoffs, there would no doubt be a few cases of hari-kari worth mentioning, but all in all, there would be less general shock than might be expected. Part of that is simply contentment, a delicious and foreign feeling, one that is counter-balanced by a baseball savvy market’s awareness that this edition of Red Sox baseball contains serious question marks about its worthiness in the pitching department.

The wickedly sub-par performances from Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke this season are what has kept this Red Sox team from running away from the Yankees and all others in the league. The team and its fan-base really did not have a problem with acknowledging this, a realism that has led, in a large part, to the current frame of mind in Red Sox Nation.

This team’s offense, led by worthy MVP pick David Ortiz, complemented by yeoman-like starts at various times in the season from Wakefield, Matt Clement, David Wells, and Bronson Arroyo and the late arrival of relievers like Papelbon and 2005 draft pick Craig Hansen in the bullpen, have kept this team alive to this point.

And now, with a week to go, they remain alive and their existence is cherished by everyone around them. But if their passing should come before they win a second World Series title in as many years, whether the Yankees are responsible or not, no one with half a head on their shoulders is going to be wailing and moaning.

If the Yankees are to blame, or the Red Sox simply do not win another World Series trophy, life this fall and winter will go on and people will do quite well. Around here, the new ending written last year to the same old Red Sox story is almost bizarre to contemplate.

Maybe misery isn’t a New England baseball fan’s birthright after all.

Imagine that.

Mr. Silverman covers the Red Sox for the Boston Herald.