Are the Yankees carrying a casket with a “B” on the mahogany lid and six brass handles into Fenway Park tonight? Or are the talent-challenged Red Sox going to climb off the AL East canvas and make the Yankees bite their nails for the final month?

Either way, the latest installment of Yankees-Red Sox will provide grand theater.

Not only do the rivals get it on for three games – two of which the Red Sox need to stay close to the first-place Yankees. No, there is more.

Like Roger Clemens taking the Fenway mound tonight, Pedro Martinez tomorrow against Orlando Hernandez and David Cone facing Mike Mussina, the arm who replaced Cone in pinstripes, Sunday evening.

“You look forward to these kind of series – I am getting chills sitting here thinking about it,” David Justice said before yesterday’s 5-4 win in 11 innings over the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees are 5-1 against the Red Sox at home but just 2-4 at Fenway, where the great Martinez makes his first appearance since May.

Martinez returned last weekend in Texas after missing two months with a balky shoulder. He is 1-1 in four starts against the Yankees this year and hasn’t won since joking about the “Curse of Babe Ruth.”

Asked about the curse on May 30, Martinez said with a smile, “Wake up the damn Bambino, maybe I will drill him in the [butt].”

Each team will be without a regular player, though the Yankees come out ahead since they are missing third baseman Scott Brosius and the Red Sox placed shortstop Nomar Garciaparra back on the DL.

Of course, the Red Sox have changed managers since the Yankees last saw them. Jimy Williams, a managerial magician, was replaced by pitching coach Joe Kerrigan on Aug. 16.

If the Yankees don’t bury the Bosox, they get another chance next weekend at the Stadium, where the final four of the 19 games between the clubs will be played.

“When Abner Doubleday invented this game, this is the rivalry he had in mind,” Mike Stanton said. “Yankees-Red Sox is what it’s all about.”

According to Joe Torre, it’s even bigger than Dodgers-Giants at Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds.

“It’s the same type of excitement except you have to magnify it,” Torre said. “Today we pay so much more attention to it, media-wise it gets built up. Normally it lives up to expectations.”

Lately, the Yankees haven’t lived up to their lofty expectations, going 14-14 in August. Still, the Red Sox don’t consume the Yankees thoughts.

“We are playing to get to October and this is just another step along the way,” Torre said. “In the past, we have played well. I am assuming we are going to play well.”

Asked why his club has been inconsistent, Torre shrugged.

“They prepare thoroughly but they sort of misfire at times,” said Torre, whose lineup is in a miserable 15-for-110 (.136) funk with runners in scoring position in the last 13 games. And that counts yesterday’s 3-for-11. “I am baffled by it myself.”

Torre doesn’t put much stock in the Red Sox’ 11-15 August ledger going into last night’s play.

“You don’t know what that message is,” Torre said. “We haven’t been lights out, either. Neither one has been hot or cold.”

However, now the Yankees can put the Red Sox to sleep.

“If we go out and play well the next 10 days, we will be sitting pretty good,” Justice said.

According to a Blue Jay, the Red Sox are in trouble.

“The Yankees will tear them up – the Red Sox are done,” the Blue Jay said.