An Unlikely End to Improbable Victory : American League East: Stone’s single with the bases loaded beats Blue Jays, 7-6. It gives the Red Sox a one-game lead and momentum in their most important series of the season.

BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox survived another ghostly reminder of their haunting collapses of the past on Friday night but still face the ghastly possibility that Roger Clemens will not be able to pitch today.

The pressure on Clemens as he tries to make his first start since Sept. 4 was eased slightly when the Red Sox won the opening game of the showdown series with the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-6, to take a one-game lead over the Blue Jays in the American League East.

A Fenway Park crowd of 35,735, conditioned to the frustration of other autumns, may not have been surprised when the Red Sox blew leads of 4-0 and 5-4, but it ultimately was Tom Henke, the Toronto relief ace, who was unable to hold a 6-5 lead in the ninth inning.

The two-run rally was capped by a bases-loaded single by Jeff Stone, the most improbable of Boston heroes in a season in which people named Tom Bolton and Dana Kiecker and Greg Harris have helped sustain New England’s latest impossible dream.

“I’m numb. I’m on cloud 10,” said Stone, who could be excused for soaring past cloud nine because this was his first major league hit since he singled off Henke last September.

“You’ve got to wonder why he was even up there,” teammate Mike Greenwell said of Stone, “but sometimes games are won on gut feelings. You’ve got to give Joe (Morgan, Red Sox manager) credit for going with his.”

Morgan said he didn’t have much of a choice of pinch-hitting for Stone, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner for designated hitter Dwight Evans in the eighth.

“If I’d had Ted Williams I’d have sent him up there, but I don’t,” Morgan said. “I thought about using Marty Barrett and calling for a squeeze, but with the infield in that was almost impossible. I just had a good feeling about Jeff. We’ve had a lot of Jeff Stones come through for us this year.”

This Jeff Stone is a 29-year-old veteran of trials with the Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles. He was signed by the Red Sox after his 1988 release by Baltimore and spent most of the last two seasons at triple-A Pawtucket.

He had appeared in seven games after his Sept. 1 recall by the Red Sox, all as a pinch-runner.

Henke had converted 31 of his previous 35 save attempts but walked Jody Reed to open the ninth inning. Carlos Quintana sacrificed, Wade Boggs walked, Ellis Burks singled to load the bases and Greenwell singled to tie the game, leave the bases loaded and bring up Stone. He fouled off the first pitch, then rammed a single over the drawn-in infield and outfield.

“I looked back to see if Joe was going to call me back for a pinch-hitter and was surprised when he didn’t,” Stone said. “I was looking for a fastball, just trying to be aggressive, but I haven’t hit in 27 days. I’ve taken batting practice, but that’s not the same as live pitching. The way the fans were howling it was a strange situation, almost like ‘The Natural.’ ”

As Roy Hobbs for a night, Stone called it his biggest moment, surpassing the two home runs he hit for the Phillies in a 1986 Game of the Week telecast against the New York Mets.

This, of course, may have been the Game of the Year for the Red Sox, who have five games left, as does Toronto.

“It’s a three-game series, but this was the big one,” Greenwell said. “They lost with Dave Stieb and Tom Henke, and that has to put a little more pressure on them and make us a little looser.”

Four singles enabled the Red Sox to take a 1-0 lead off 18-game winner Stieb in the first inning. Home runs by Boggs, his first since June 28, and Tom Brunansky produced three more runs and a 4-0 lead in the sixth.

Mike Boddicker had yielded only three hits to that point, but the faithful in Fenway Park may have recalled how the Red Sox blew 3-0 leads en route to numbing defeats in Game 7 of both the 1975 and 1986 World Series.

This one evaporated in the seventh when the Blue Jays capitalized on two hit batters and four singles off Boddicker and Larry Anderson, gaining a 4-4 tie. Boston untied it in the eighth, when consecutive throwing errors by third baseman Kelly Gruber produced a 5-4 lead that lasted only two batters into the ninth.

Greg Myers singled and Junior Felix slugged a two-run homer off Jeff Gray for a 6-5 lead as the Red Sox relief ace, Jeff Reardon, watched from the bullpen, having warmed up since the eighth inning.

“I’m not complaining. We won the game, but I just don’t know what’s in the man’s mind,” Reardon said of Morgan and his use of the bullpen. “I misread him three times in 15 minutes tonight. I don’t understand what he’s thinking.”

Reardon appeared after the home run by Felix, retired three consecutive batters and gained the victory when the Red Sox rallied.

Now it’s Clemens’ turn. He will decide on the status of his tender shoulder when he warms up today. The Red Sox are 9-13 since he last pitched, the ninth victory being as improbable as it gets.