It goes down as one of the greatest Red Sox regular-season victories of all time, easily the best Fenway game since the magical 2013 postseason. As regular-season games go, it takes its place alongside Luis Tiant’s 2-0 victory over Jim Palmer in front of a crowd that unofficially swelled to 47,000 on Sept. 16, 1975.

It had a postseason pulse. It was an October-esque 63 degrees at game time and the Red Sox and Yankees were playing a pennant race game in September for the first time in nine years.

The upstart Yanks appeared to be winners. Leading, 5-1, in the eighth, they had everything lined up for a victory that would put them three games behind the Red Sox with 16 to play. Momentum was moving toward New York. You could feel it in the autumnal air.

And then the Red Sox produced some magic not seen here since the Tigers and Cardinals were thwarted in October of 2013. David Ortiz, enjoying a better farewell tour than Sinatra, advanced his MVP case with a solo homer in the eighth to cut the margin to 5-2. Big Papi had some choice words for his young teammates as he approached the dugout after the blast.

The mojo carried into the ninth. The Sox put a couple of runners aboard, but faced extinction with two outs and two on after Joe Girardi summoned gigantic closer Dellin Betances. The indomitable Ortiz cut it to 5-3 with an RBI single and Mookie Betts made it 5-4 with a single through the shortstop hole. A lot of folks had left the ballpark by this time. Sorry. They missed it. Hanley Ramirez worked the count to 3-1, then hit a monstrous walkoff shot into the center-field bleachers.

Pandemonium on the field. In an instant, the seemingly vulnerable Sox had buried the Yanks and vaulted two games ahead of the Orioles, who’d lost to Tampa. Walkoff wins and comeback wins have been rare for this muscle-flexing Sox edition. This one made you believe that . . . in the words of Kevin Garnett . . . “anything’s possible.’’

Red Sox-Cubs World Series? Why not? Thursday’s Back Bay bacchanal makes the case that these 2016 Red Sox can be as good as anybody. They have as much talent as any team in the American League. They have the best offense in baseball (three players with 100 RBIs already). Dave Dombrowski has assembled the pieces. We just need to know that they can win close games and not roll over when they trail in the late innings. Thursday night was a nice demonstration that they can do both.

“It ended in the right fashion for us,’’ said an understated John Farrell, who moved a few inches away from the hot seat. “We haven­’t­ had many walkoffs. David’s home run in the eighth was a huge energy boost. You could feel it in the dugout. Sunday’s win in Toronto was a big win. This is right there with it.’’

Thanks, John. But long after the memory of Sunday’s important win at Rogers Centre has faded, folks still will be talking of the night the Sox stole lunch money from the hated, red-hot Yankees. It’s been quite a while since frothy Fenway fans filed out of the yard chanting, “Yankees suck!’’

Finally some fire in the belly of the Fenway beast.

“I was trying to go to the moon,’’ said Hanley after his double Gatorade shower.

“That’s my best baseball moment,’’ said the 23-year-old Betts.

The unbelievable Ortiz (.317, 34, 114 — can you say “Yaz in ‘67’’?) downplayed his heroics, saying, “I’m not focused on personal numbers. I’m focused on winning. The race is very close. Every win matters. It’s great to be part of history, but I’m focusing on wins.’’

It was an absolute backbreaker for the young Yankees. They’ve worked hard to get back into contention, but now they trail Boston by five games and there are still three teams ahead of them in the hand-to-hand combat of the American League East.

“This is a critical win at a big time,’’ said Farrell.

It was much more than that. If things go well for the 2016 Red Sox, this will become the game when the Sox made believers of a skeptical fandom. This was a night when the Sox did not bludgeon the other team and win with ease. This was a night when the Sox won a hard game and demonstrated the heart a team needs to win in October. It was a win unlike any other in this 2016 season.

It was the night Hanley Ramirez took the Red Sox almost to the moon.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.