Boston Red Sox defeat Detroit Tigers, 4-1

What's this? The wild-card-leading Red Sox two games ahead of last year's playoff-caliber pace and hovering within striking range of the division-leading Yankees?

That's the ticket. After months of angst from the beaches to the boardrooms across New England over their wheel-spinning ways, the surging Sox last night returned triumphantly to the Hub and cinched their ninth win in 10 tries by stifling the Tigers, 4-1, before 35,153 at Fenway Park.

The victory lifted the...

When the history of the 2004 Red Sox is written, the hardball poets will cite July 31 as the turning point of the season. That's right, all you Nomie Krishnas, still wearing those No. 5 jerseys . . . the Sox kicked it into gear when they traded Nomar Garciaparra in a complicated four-team deal that at once bolstered Boston's defense and dissolved the dark cloud of bad karma and uncertainty that was polluting the Sox clubhouse.

Sometimes cause-and-effect is obvious and i...