ON a typically dismal October night in May, Bernie Williams hit a monster through the mist off an old friend who looked as out of uniform in Boston road grays as Madonna would in a turtleneck.

A sharp David Cone challenged Bernie with a fastball and he smoked it high enough to reach the upper deck. He didn’t pull it quite enough for it to land there. It crashed in the alley, bounced like a Superball, and disappeared. Bernie’s season of distraction went with it.

The third-inning blast gave the Yankees their first lead in a game they would win, 7-3. Remember it as the swing that changed Bernie’s season.

October weather, October-type pressure with the first-place Red Sox in town, a great deal of personal pride at stake with Cone on the hill in enemy colors.

Naturally, Williams, a great Yankee, responded with a bang that made everyone forget for the moment he entered the evening with a .216 batting average.

And then there was Derek Jeter. What’s wrong with Jeter? The masses want to know.

Nothing a little autumn atmosphere couldn’t solve.

Naturally, with the pressure boiling, Jeter was calmly perfect. With the Yankees up by a half-dozen runs, Jeter legged out an infield hit in the eighth to make it a 5-for-5 night that included a home run and a double. His first career five-hit game jacked his batting average to .324, well on its way to Jeter country.

When the games are most important, and all 19 against the Red Sox will be that, the Yankees are still the Yankees. They’re still clutch.

The big-game juices can’t be manufactured by anything but big games, and with Reggie Jackson in the house, the Yankees made him proud.

These Yankees don’t have a Reggie. They don’t have a three-home-runs-on-three-pitches Mr. October. They do have a room full of players who elevate their play for the big games.

The Yankees haven’t generated much offense this season. Even so, Joe Torre hasn’t looked to the front office for any major help. He would like a better bench. That’s all.

“I don’t think we need anything other than to play more consistent,” Torre said before the game. “We just need a little more productivity from people we’re going to get it from.”

There was no maybe in his words, no maybe in his tone. He was certain. With George Steinbrenner prowling the grounds, Jeter and Williams did their manager a good turn and calmed The Boss’ percolating rage over the previous evening’s rainout and the underachieving offense.

Jeter’s big night didn’t come from out of left field. He’s been on the come for a couple of weeks. Jeter unveiled a new way to beat a pitcher last night. He used his smile.

As he settled in at the plate in the first, Jeter flashed Cone a smile, which the pitcher said disarmed him.

“That was the plan,” Jeter said. “No. I was just playing with him.”

Playing with him and against him, no longer behind him. Seeing Cone so many times is like seeing most pitchers once or twice, Jeter indicated, because Cone is a chameleon on the mound.

“He’ll throw any pitch, any count to any hitter,” Jeter said. “Just because you played behind him it’s no help.”

Jeter, battling shoulder soreness all season, hits any pitcher, any day, any conditions. The mist certainly didn’t impair his vision at the plate.

After smiling at Cone, Jeter stroked an opposite field double. The next two times he faced Cone, he singled, first to left, then to center. He used the whole field against Cone and sent the first pitch he saw from Tim Wakefield over the left field fence.

For Jeter, the evening was an eruption of what has been bubbling. For Williams, it was the beginning of a new season.

No longer plagued by thoughts of his father suffering from a terrible lung disease, Williams now is grieving for his late father.

He’s on the mend. It’s only a question of when he’ll go on a tear.

“I think his mind is OK,” Torre said of Williams. “This is something he’ll wrestle with for a while. Hopefully, he’ll get in a groove and get lost in his performance, instead of thinking about the sadness that’s happened in his life.”

Better days are ahead for Bernie and the Yankees. The bigger the games, the better.