Evans Exorcises Fenway Demons, Leads 4-3 Win : American League East: His single wins for the Red Sox and clinches at least a tie for first place with two games to play.

At 38, Dwight Evans doesn’t go back to 1918, the Red Sox’s last World Series victory. He is, however, intimate with the ghosts of the 17 years he has been in Boston and thankful--even amazed--that he was still in a uniform and a position Monday night to confront some of them personally.

The Red Sox clinched a tie for the American League East championship by defeating the Chicago White Sox, 4-3, as the Toronto Blue Jays were losing to the Baltimore Orioles, 6-3.

Toronto is two games behind with two to play. The best the Blue Jays can do is force a one-game playoff with the Red Sox Thursday at the SkyDome.

Tom Bolton, 10-5 in his rookie year with the Red Sox, will attempt to close out the Blue Jays when he faces Chicago’s Melido Perez (13-14) tonight.

“It feels like we’ve won it, but we know the job isn’t done,” Evans said in a subdued clubhouse. “We want to go out winning. We don’t want to back in.

“If we can’t beat the team with the third-best record in baseball (the White Sox), we can’t beat Oakland (in the playoffs).”

Evans doubled and singled twice as the Red Sox (87-73) beat the White Sox (93-67) in the opener of a three-game series. His first single set up one run and his second decided things, driving in the run that snapped a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning after Chicago had rallied from a 3-0 deficit with three runs in the top of the inning.

Evans is scheduled to have a bone spur removed from his lower back when the season is over. Once baseball’s finest right fielder and now relegated to the role of designated hitter by the back condition, Evans spent 15 days on the disabled list in July and a week in traction in late August.

He doubted that he would return from the last episode, doubted he would ever again be up with a game on the line.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I didn’t think I had a chance. I was flat on my back 24 hours a day. I couldn’t lift my head. I had to do everything sideways.”

The traction eased the discomfort, and now Evans, long dedicated to conditioning, said he feels great--confident that the postseason surgery will enable him to continue playing.

“I look through the same eyes I did when I was 20,” he said. “Only my body has changed, but if I can continue to come through like I did tonight I want to continue playing.

“I mean, to be up in a situation like that is why I play the game. It always has been and always will be. To me, it’s a great high, what the game is all about.”

Stunned by the White Sox rally in the top of the eighth, the Red Sox took heart when Chicago left-hander Ken Patterson walked Wade Boggs to open the home half. Right-hander Barry Jones replaced Patterson and was jolted by Ellis Burks’ drive off the top of the renown wall in left, a home run in any park except Fenway.

The ball caromed to left fielder Ivan Calderon, who wheeled and threw out Boggs at third as Burks raced to second. That set up an intentional walk to Mike Greenwell as Evans stood in the on deck circle and said to himself, “Go ahead, walk him.”

The count went full, and Evans then drove his decisive single up the middle--exactly what he wanted to do.

“It’s wishful thinking to try and hit a home run off that guy,” Evans said, adding that he was thinking only of the lessons learned from former Red Sox hitting instructor Walt Hriniak, who is now the White Sox hitting coach.

“I wanted to hit it up the middle the way Walter taught me to, and it was nice to do it with him sitting on the other side. I have one mission, and that’s to come through in a situation like that.”

The situation was created by the three-run Chicago eighth after rookie Dana Kiecker, bidding for his ninth victory and first complete game in 25 starts, gave the Red Sox seven shutout innings only to be yanked after a leadoff double by Calderon in the eighth.

An RBI double by Lance Johnson, an RBI single by Dan Pasqua and an RBI double by Robin Ventura brought the White Sox even against Larry Andersen.

Ventura was on second with two outs when Jeff Reardon came in and got Scott Fletcher to hit a hard grounder down the third base line. Boggs made a diving stop, jumped to his feet and rifled out Fletcher on a debatable call as he dived into the bag.

Reardon pitched a flawless ninth inning to gain the victory.

“We may not have the best talent in the division, but we have a lot of heart and a lot of character,” Evans said. “Getting to the playoffs and the World Series are the things you remember most.

“I think back to some of those clubs we had between ’75 and ‘78, with guys like Fred Lynn and Jim Rice and Carlton Fisk and Rick Burleson, and it’s beyond me how we didn’t win at least two world championships.

“I realized the chances are few and far between. Then there was the hurt of ’86 (in the World Series loss to the New York Mets), and ’88 (the playoff sweep by the A’s) was over before we knew it. We want to make the most of this, and I think we can.”