Season’s on the Brink for Jays and Red Sox : Baseball: The two rivals will meet at Fenway Park for the opener of a three-game showdown.

After 172 days and 156 games, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox are tied for the American League East lead.

And what amounts to a six-game season gets under way at Fenway Park tonight with the two rivals meeting in the opener of a three-game showdown.

“It was bound to come down to this,” Toronto’s Mookie Wilson said.

“That’s the way this season has been going. Up and down. We’re in first place a day or a week. They’re there for a day or week.”

While the Blue Jays relaxed in Boston during a schedule break Thursday, the Red Sox moved back into a first-place tie with a 3-2 victory on a quickie road trip to Detroit.

The victory enabled Boston, which trailed Toronto by 1 1/2 games Tuesday night, to tie the Blue Jays with an 84-72 record.

It also meant that neither the Blue Jays nor the Red Sox will clinch the division flag this weekend, although a sweep by either would mean at least a tie.

Boston will wind up the regular season at home with three games against the Chicago White Sox on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Toronto finishes with three games in Baltimore.

“It’s just one of those weird seasons, and no one knows why,” Wilson said. “Everybody has to wait until the very end. The series this weekend might not decide anything at all.”

Neither manager, Cito Gaston of Toronto nor Joe Morgan of Boston, would predict what might happen in the three-game series.

“It’s a lot of fun, and I think whichever team is more relaxed will have the advantage,” Gaston said.

“We’re all tied up with a chance to win it all,” Morgan said. “You can’t ask for much more at this stage.”

Both teams are heading into the series playing inconsistently, the same as they have all season.

Toronto, smarting from two losses in a row in Milwaukee, is 6-4 in its last 10 games. Boston has won two games in a row after going 2-9, including a 2-8 road swing.

“In your wildest dreams, would you picture us to be in this situation?” Boston’s Jody Reed asked.

The Red Sox led the Blue Jays by 6 1/2 games early this month, an advantage built with a 10-game winning streak begun with three victories in Toronto. But after being swept by Oakland and losing star pitcher Roger Clemens to shoulder tendinitis, the Red Sox went into a swoon. They lost 15 of 21 games, falling 1 1/2 games behind Toronto.

The Red Sox have dominated the Blue Jays so far this season, leading the season series 8-2.

The Blue Jays expect to have third baseman Kelly Gruber back from a bout with the flu for the series’ opener tonight. Gruber has been a one-man gang with his bat this month.

The Red Sox hope to have third baseman Wade Boggs back. Boggs had lower back pain and was forced to leave a game early Tuesday night. He is 0-for-12 and 1-for-20, dropping his average to .304, far below his .347 lifetime mark.