IT’S hard not to feel the duel ing tugs of history and destiny now. It’s difficult to ignore all the things that have separated these teams for 86 years, because it’s all on display, the mythical and the mystical, the tangible and the touchable.

You want to believe that a higher power is at work here? You can do that. You can look at Theo Epstein’s long face, as he talks of the very real possibility that Curt Schilling, his bullet-proof horse, may not throw a baseball in anger again this year. Who else but the Red Sox would this happen to?

You think the idea of jinxes, hexes, poxes and curses is absurd? You can feel that way, too. You can look at the way Jon Lieber – Jon Lieber! – outdueled the mighty Pedro Martinez. You can look at the showdown of the teams’ respective MVPs that injected a dash of theater into the ninth inning, and remember how Mariano Rivera blew strike three past David Ortiz.

It’s all out there. It’s all in the open. The Yankees beat the Red Sox again last night, 3-1, and they carry a 2-0 lead to Boston with them, where the battered, bruised remains of Red Sox Nation will be waiting for them. The Red Sox arrived in New York fueled by a swagger that did seem rather shocking given the 86 empty years that preceded them here.

They leave battered, and tattered, and the only reason they aren’t shattered is because they still haven’t lost a game at Fenway Park. Yet.

“We’re looking forward to getting things turned around,” said Terry Francona, who’s gotten increasingly testy as the fickle clutch of destiny has stopped massaging his team’s shoulders and started gripping its neck. “We really have no other choice but to feel like we’re going to win the next game.”

If they sound like the words of a desperate man, it’s because they represent the feelings of a suddenly desperate team.

Remember all the talk of the mighty Red Sox rotation? Now Schilling walks with a boot cast. And Martinez, showing a grit that belied the trouble he was in all game, was unable to carry his team in Game 2, not on a night when Lieber was given an early 1-0 lead and a late 3-0 lead and seemed ready to protect it all the way to Christmas if he had to.

“Pedro was Pedro,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “To beat him when he had his stuff like this, it really gives us a lot of confidence.”

All night long there was the scent of blood in the air, a raw, visceral fury. Only the presence of Pedro produces this. Only Pedro can make the enormity of Yankees-Red Sox seem like an undercard to the real featured match, Pedro against the fans, Pedro against a stadium ringing chants.

WHO’S YOUR DADDY? WHO’S YOUR DADDY?

And only Pedro can turn it around, throw it right back at 56,136 people, pointing to the sky with a smile the first time he heard the mantra, then later admitting that he enjoyed the hubbub.

“It actually made me feel really really good,” Martinez said. “I actually realized I was somebody important. I got the attention of 60,00 fans, plus you guys [in the press], plus the whole world. I actually kind of like it. They did make me feel important.”

He is important. He is the biggest personality in this baseball feud forever generated by big personalities, forever fueled by the dueling hauls of real and surreal, history and destiny. But even Pedro, for everything he is, for everything he’s been, can’t seem to sway the laws of the baseball universe.

For now, they remained unchanged.

For now, until proven otherwise, the Yankees remain way ahead on points on both counts. The Red Sox may not be dead, not yet, not until they give one up at Fenway. But suddenly, they’re awfully close.

Postseason Pedro

Pedro Martinez’s start against the Yankees last night in ALCS Game 2 followed the pattern of his previous playoff starts.

Here’s a look at those made against the Yankees and other teams during his career:

Oct. 13, 2004 Stadium 6 4 3 3 4 7 Yankees, 3-1

Per Start

vs. Yanks vs. Others

6.8 IP 6.3

5.5 H 5.5

3.0 R 2.3

2.0 BB 1.5

8.3 K 5.0

1-3 W-L 2-2