The narrative of a playoff baseball series is severe, see-sawing tensions like a serial novel. The Red Sox won Game 1 of the American League Championship Series – the Rays were too young and too scared; Josh Beckett and Jon Lester loomed; the series was over. The Rays now hold the same one-game advantage – the Red Sox are too old and too injured; Beckett is finished and Lester mortal; the series is over.

There is a kernel of truth in those extremes, but the Red Sox – down 2-1 heading into tonight’s Game 4 – understand acutely that a seven-game series is not lost in the first three games. One of them understands acutely that a seven-game series is not won in the first three games, either.

“We were in way better shape,” said Paul Byrd, the Boston pitcher who, last season, played on a Cleveland Indians team that had the Red Sox backed into a darker corner than the Rays currently do. The Indians led the ALCS, 3-1, with a game remaining to be played in Cleveland. They had pitching horses Fausto Carmona and CC Sabathia in the chamber.

Sabathia imploded. J.D. Drew hit a pivotal grand slam. Daisuke Matsuzaka did just enough to win. Series over, Sox win. The doom predicted when the Sox went down 3-1 proved unfounded.

“They just got hot at the right time,” Byrd said. “They just made things work. Just got hot. Pitching really came through at the end. That’s where we’re at right now. We need really good pitching performances, and you can get hot. Seven games isn’t that long. We’ve got to turn it around.

“When I was with Cleveland, Game 4, we won, and we had a lot of momentum going. We couldn’t have had any more momentum going. All of a sudden, bam. We can’t score the last three games, and they poured it on.”

A potential Red Sox comeback this season, then, would start tonight with Tim Wakefield. It’s hard to find any indicator how a knuckleballer will pitch, but Wakefield was 7-4 with a 3.10 ERA at Fenway Park this season.

Tampa starter Andy Sonnanstine has been even better against the Red Sox. In two consecutive September starts, Sonnanstine did not allow the Red Sox a run while striking out 12 in a combined 13 innings. The first start, which lasted seven innings, came at Fenway. The second, which lasted six, came at Tropicana Field.

So the Red Sox have some work to avoid a 3-1 hole, which is grim and would produce even grimmer headlines. But the Red Sox realize from experience that sometimes it takes seven games to win a seven-game series.

“Being down 2-1, you don’t want to be there,” Byrd said. “And just because we came back last year doesn’t mean we can do it again this year. But what I do like is that this team has done it before. You can’t assume anything. But this team has done it before. We’ve got a bunch of fighters over here. We’ve got a bunch of clutch players. I still like our chances. We’re only down 2-1. Somebody had to be down 2-1.”