Every pre-game road had led to one place – Pedro versus the Rocket, the perfect collision of fastball deities. Who could resist it? But by the end of the afternoon, after the Yankees had beaten the Red Sox, 3-2, it was a skinny, wiry rookie named Alfonso Soriano who'd eclipsed them all.

Soriano hit a solo home run in the ninth inning off Pete Schourek, which allowed the Yankees to draw even in this weekend apocalypse at Fenway. Make no mistake: April felt more like October, as the Red Sox stunned the Bombers on Friday night, rallying against Mariano Rivera in the 10th inning, to which the Yankee responded with their own quasi-miracle on Saturday, overcoming a 2-0 deficit against Pedro.

"Hey, I'm human. I don't usually give up a two-run lead, but this time I did," Martinez said.

Talk about unlikely twists of fate: For all of Martinez' dominance over the rest of the American League, the Red Sox have failed to beat the Bombers in each of Pedro's last four starts against them. It could mean nothing, it could mean everything. All Joe Torre professes to know is, "this race is going to be a battle all summer."

That's Torre's way of saying, don't read too deeply into any single game between the Sox and Yankees. Just enjoy the rivalry that makes every game seem like October.

For most of six innings Saturday, Clemens and Martinez were equals. The Rocket twice handled Manny Ramirez with runners on base, and Pedro smothered the Yankees for a stretch in the second and third innings, striking out five of the six batters he faced.

It was a blur of 90-something mph fastballs, which is exactly what the Yankees and Red Sox expected. Clemens-Martinez wasn't just a one-day showdown, it was the game, the series, the entire weekend wrapped up in nine innings.

Thing is, it didn't last that long. Clemens paid the price for Soriano's rookie mistake in the fourth inning, failing to cover second base in time for Derek Jeter to make the inning-ending force-out on Craig Grebeck's two-out grounder. There were runners on first and second, and Clemens beat Grebeck cleanly, getting him to deliver a soft ground ball to short. Soriano, a shortstop by trade who is playing second since Chuck Knoblauch surrendered to his throwing problems, found himself watching – not running – toward the bag, as the grounder reached Jeter.

"I thought that play, he throws to first," Soriano said of Jeter. Wrong.

Jeter looked up and realized there was no one to take his throw. Instead, Brian Daubach and Soriano were in a race for second base, and Daubach won. And that loaded the bases, allowing Trot Nixon to punch a two-run single to left, giving the Red Sox a gift, 2-0 lead. After the inning, the Yankees all told Soriano not to sweat it, they'd pick him up, that everyone make mistakes.

But third base coach Willie Randolph, a former second baseman, wasn't quite as forgiving.

"You should've been there," he said to the rookie.

"Yes, but the runner was out," Soriano said of Daubach.

"That's beside the point," Randolph said. "You've got to get over."

Soriano took the lesson calmly, then used it to help the Yankees beat the Sox. In the seventh inning, after the Yankees had cut Boston's lead to 2-1, Soriano stole second and third base, then scored on a wild-pitch as pinch-hitter Luis Sojo was drawing ball four. Soriano's speed was entirely responsible for that second run, which is precisely what Torre was talking about when he said, "there's an excitement about the kid that we like."

"He's got juice," said Randolph. "We're a veteran team, and we don't run like we used to. Soriano gives us the jolt that we need."

Apparently so, because Soriano then beat Schourek with that ninth-inning home run, proof that he can hurt you with his bat, his legs and with the kind of self-confidence that sets him apart from other rookies.

Would you believe Soriano asked Sojo during spring training about winning the Rookie of the Year award? The Yankees think he's got enough talent, sure, but first things first. In fact, that 3-2 lead wouldn't have meant if Rivera had unable to exorcise the demons from Friday night's failure.

Torre admitted the team was still hurting from the memory of Ramirez' angry, two-run single up the middle – which came after Rivera chose to pitch to him, even though first base was open. And even after he'd fallen behind in the count, 2-0.

This time, though, Rivera refused to wilt.

"They got me once, but they weren't going to get me a second time," the closer said.

Not with the Fenway apocalypse going on. Not when you could've closed your eyes and sworn April had turned into October.

Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) covers baseball for ESPN.com.