Ordinarily, the idea that anything special is at stake in an April series between the Yankees and their eternal rivals, the Boston Red Sox, is just hype, and can be treated with scorn. This year is different.

The set beginning Friday may not be the three-game playoff that TV broadcasters would have you think it is, but neither is it just another series between two teams that have played 56 games against each other over the last three seasons. This one will have resonance past the standings. Statements, for once, will really be made.

Most of the appeal, of course, is that two teams rating as perhaps the best in baseball — who will most likely fight for the pennant deep into September — will play three games at Fenway Park. A Joba Chamberlain pitch that flies a foot wide of the plate, a Jacoby Ellsbury bunt curling just off the baseline, or an Alberto Gonzalez double looped off the Green Monster could result in the Yankees missing the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, or cost the Red Sox the chance to defend their world championship.

There are, though, two real reasons to think this set could be genuinely exceptional. One is the way those 56 games broke. The Yankees won 31 of them, the Red Sox 25. Curiously, in these games, Boston didn’t just score more runs, but a lot more, by a margin of 329–292. Normally, one team outscoring another by that much over 56 games can expect to win 31 and lose 25. Whether because of luck, legendary closer Mariano Rivera, the steady nerves that come with experience under pressure, or (as is likely) a bit of each of these and much else, the Yankees were able to actually invert the expected record.

Joe Torre, whatever his weaknesses as an in-game tactician, has to get a lot of credit for this. He was always more willing to use Rivera more creatively against Boston than against other teams, and a great strength of his teams was always their calm in important games. It will, therefore, be perfectly fair to hold new manager Joe Girardi to special scrutiny this weekend, and to put special weight on his performance. Torre was able to run the most important games of the season just like playoff games, without panicking his team; if Girardi can do as much over these games, he’ll have passed an important test.

The more important reason this series is crucial, though, is who’s pitching in it. Other than Mike Mussina, none of the warhorses of the rivalry’s recent years — pitchers such as Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens, and Andy Pettitte — are scheduled to start. These games will instead showcase the rivalry’s present, and its future.

For the Yankees, there will be two key tests. The first will be Chien-Ming Wang’s start Friday night. Despite winning 38 games the last two years, few think of Wang as a true ace, for the good reason that he performs poorly in the big spots. His career playoff line is 0–3 with a 7.58 ERA. In 71 career innings against Boston, he’s struck out 29 and walked 34. This probably has less to do with his character than with his style; because he’s so heavily reliant on one pitch, his sinking fastball, he’s more susceptible to hammerings from patient lineups, and teams that can invest more time and effort preparing for him. A strong showing Friday night would show a gear Wang hasn’t showed, and one the Yankees need.

The other will be Phil Hughes’s start Sunday, his first ever against Boston — and in a nationally televised game, no less. He was the team’s best starter down the stretch last year, and pitched brilliantly out of the bullpen in the playoffs, but this will arguably be the biggest test he’s faced yet in his short career. Even a thrashing would do little to dim his star, but putting up his best against David Ortiz and company would do more than a bit to confirm that he’s on his way into developing into the full-bore ace the team needs.

Boston’s pitchers are in somewhat similar positions. Rookie Clay Buchholz, who has every bit the potential of Chamberlain and Hughes, and maybe more, will be making his first start against the Yankees Friday night. As with Hughes, this is a no-lose position: No one will much hold it against him if he’s shelled, but if he does what he’s capable of, he’ll have marked a milestone in his development. Daisuke Matsuzaka, meanwhile, is in a position a bit like Wang’s. Last year, the Yankees tore him up (he surrendered a 6.12 ERA in four starts), and he didn’t do much in the playoffs, either. More weak tea from him on Sunday would do a bit to confirm an impression that his idiosyncratic style works far better against befuddled second-division clubs than it does against tougher, prepared lineups.

It’s Saturday’s starter, Josh Beckett, who may have the most to prove, though. His brilliant performance in last year’s playoffs, following on his equally brilliant performance in 2003, cemented his reputation as an ace among aces, one of those rare pitchers who can be reliably counted on to pitch his best when it counts most. Last year was also, though, the first time in his career that he both pitched 200 innings and pitched well. Plagued by back problems this spring, he pitched miserably in his first start this year, against Toronto. If he’s going to follow on last year and establish himself as a true No. 1, there will be no better time and place to do it than Saturday at Fenway.

tmarchman@nysun.com