Back in April, when the Yankees and Red Sox played seven games against each other in 10 days, it was viewed as a preview of how the rest of the season could go. And after taking six of the seven, it looked as if Boston finally had New York’s number.

The last game of that series was April 25. Now, little more than two months later, the two ancient foes are meeting again in New York. And if Boston can’t repeat what it did when the season still had fuzzy cheeks, what had looked like a terrific pennant race could already be over.

You can take that as the typical overreaction of yet another alleged expert analyst, and I wouldn’t blame you. I, after all, was one of the idiots who thought that the first meeting of the two teams was a real indication of their relative abilities. At the time, I said that the Yankees were proving that what some of us said in the off-season was true: They had gone back to those wonderful days of the mid-1980s when the Yankees were all hitting and no pitching.

The Yankees staggered out of Boston on April 25, the entire team unable to bat .200 and Derek Jeter and A-Rod struggling through epic slumps. With the exception of Kevin Brown, the pitching looked as wobbly as a drunk on a balance beam. It seemed that when Boston got its entire lineup back together, it would dominate the AL East.

So much for appearances.

The Red Sox have their team back together, and Nomar Garciaparra is back at shortstop. It hasn’t helped them catch New York.

And now there’s talk that No-mah, who has been sulking ever since Boston tried to trade for A-Rod over the winter, could be leaving Boston. Naturally, one of the places people think he could end up is where all great players find themselves – in the Bronx.

And wouldn’t that be something to make Red Sox fans even more nauseous than they already are?

Imagine Nomar in pinstripes, playing in an all-shortstop infield. (First base doesn’t count, does it?) He’d have to play second base, because if Jeter didn’t move for A-Rod he sure isn’t going to move over for Garciaparra.

It probably won’t happen. The Yankees seem to be doing just fine with Miguel Cairo playing second most of the time and hitting .290. Anyway, Bret Boone is also available if the Yankees wanted a real second baseman.

Just the same, it’s fun to think about, especially as the Yankees are on the verge of burying the Red Sox and everyone else in the division, the league, and the planet.

Because it turns out that the Yankees back in April were still on a shake-down cruise with their new lineup loaded with big bats. The Red Sox were lucky to catch them before they found their stride. It may be the last good memory of the season for Boston.

They have no one but themselves to blame. Boston woke the Yankees up in those seven games. At the same time, the Red Sox seemed to take too much confidence out of the way they thrashed the Yankees. You could hardly blame them.

After beating the Yankees on April 25 for the sixth time in the seven games of a home-and-home series, the Red Sox were 12-6 and in first place in the AL East. Three more wins against Tampa Bay by a combined score of 17-3 hiked their record to 15-6.

The Yankees came out of the Boston series at 8-11, 4 1/2 games behind Boston. They, too, won their next three games, all against Oakland, to maintain pace behind the Sox. Then, while the Red Sox slumped, the Yankees just kept on winning.

Since April 25, the Red Sox have gone 30-26 while New York has gone 39-15, turning a 4 1/2-game deficit into a 5 1/2-game lead and compiling the best record in baseball.

So now it’s June and when these three games are over, the Red Sox will have played 77 games and the Yankees 76, with 10 of the scheduled 19 games between them already in the books. It’s only the mid-point of a long season, but you can’t say this isn’t critical for Boston.

If the Yankees sweep Boston in the three games at Yankee Stadium, the Bombers will have an 8 1/2-game lead. If they win two of three, it will be 6 1/2 games. If either happens, Boston can pucker up, kiss the AL East title goodbye and start thinking wild card.

The cold reality is that the Red Sox have to win a minimum of two of three, shave a game off the Yankee lead, and hope to get another game back at the end of July, when the Yankees travel to Boston for games 11-13 of the season series.

If Boston does nothing in New York, those three games in July and the remaining six in September won’t mean much, if anything. The Yankees have survived Kevin Brown being on the disabled list. They’ve survived Jose Contreras. They’ve survived Jeter’s slump and A-Rod’s anemic batting average with runners in scoring position. They’ve survived Jason Giambi missing 20 games.

You can even say the Yankees still haven’t really hit their stride. They can play better.

Comforting thoughts for Boston fans coming to New York, aren’t they?

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