The go-ahead run in the sixth inning of last night's game, which pitted Tim Wakefield against Jason Johnson, came on a strikeout that bounced off the catcher and skidded away, allowing the batter to reach and the runner at third to scamper home.

Surprisingly, though, it wasn't a fluttering Wakefield knuckleball responsible for that scenario but rather a Johnson pitch -- it looked to be a slider -- to Johnny Damon. What should have been the second out of the Boston half of the sixth instead snapped a 5-5 tie.

With that, Johnson seemed to come unglued. He would last only three more batters -- a Tony Graffanino single (his third hit of the night), a David Ortiz fly out, and a two-run double down the line in left by Manny Ramirez, sending the Sox to a 9-5 advantage in a game the Tigers had led, 5-3, after four innings. The Tigers trimmed the lead to 9-7 with a pair of runs in the seventh.

The Sox were looking for their 14th consecutive home win to begin a season-long 14-game, five-team homestand, the team's longest since a 14-game stretch in the Fens in 1994. The 14 straight home wins, meanwhile, would be the fourth-best run in team history.

The Sox, who averaged 4.8 runs per game during the recently completed 10-game road swing, a 4-6 trip, clearly savored returning to Fenway, where they had averaged 8.3 runs in their 13 previous games.

The club, which completed that trip Thursday night in Kansas City, Mo., didn't land in Boston until 3:45 yesterday morning and arrived at Fenway at or just before 4:30 a.m. Still, with the 8 p.m. start time, Terry Francona opted to rest only one regular, Edgar Renteria, who was 10 for 21 (.476) in his last five games, opting for Alex Cora at shortstop.

And Cora, who knocked in two runs Thursday starting at second base, continued to hit. In his first at-bat last night, in the third inning, he singled and scored, improving, for the time being, to .317 (13 for 41) over 14 games plus one at-bat last night.

The Sox sent eight men to the plate in the third inning against Johnson. The lanky righthander worked through the first and second innings in just 22 total pitches, allowing only a Graffanino single. But he labored in the third, throwing 32.

It began with Doug Mirabelli's double, with the assist going to right fielder Magglio Ordonez. Ordonez had time to get to the ball but felt himself nearing the wall and jumped too soon, the ball caroming off his glove. Cora then singled, putting runners on the corners for Damon, who plated Mirabelli with a sacrifice fly.

Graffanino then singled sharply up the middle and Ortiz walked on five pitches, loading the bases for Ramirez. Johnson, who had been hit at a .417 clip in 39 career encounters with Ramirez, including three home runs, wanted no part of the major league's RBI leader. Looking rattled, he walked Ramirez on five pitches, the last three not close to the strike zone, walking in a run.

Trot Nixon followed with a sacrifice fly to up the Sox' lead to 3-1, before Kevin Millar fanned for the second time in as many innings, leaving two men on base.

Perhaps it was the lengthy wait in the dugout as his offense pounded Johnson, but the Wakefield who came out for the fourth inning was far less effective than the pitcher who had worked a 1-2-3 third.

Wakefield walked Craig Monroe to lead off the inning, gave up a homer to Brandon Inge, allowed a Wall double to Providence College product John McDonald, then served up another homer, this one to No. 9 hitter Curtis Granderson.

Both home runs involved a degree of uncertainty, though television replays confirmed that both balls did indeed leave the playing field in fair territory.

Inge's blast caromed off the wall above the 379-foot sign in left-center, just to the right of the yellow line for a homer. However, no umpire signaled the home run. So, Damon picked up the ball and gunned it to Graffanino, who threw toward third base. Bill Mueller, knowing the play was a homer, didn't even attempt to field the relay throw, which bounced by Inge as he neared third and skidded into the visiting dugout. That tied it at 3-3.

Following McDonald's double, Granderson sent a tailing shot down the line in right that sailed by Pesky's Pole. Initial ruling: foul. That brought a cussing Alan Trammell out of the dugout, charging hard toward first base umpire Jim Wolf. Wolf soon huddled with his colleagues. The consensus: home run, and a 5-3 Detroit lead.

Terry Francona then took his turn charging out of the dugout, and following a spirited discussion with plate umpire Randy Marsh, Francona earned his fifth ejection of the season and the team's 13th.

Wakefield, meanwhile, was continuing to pitch, despite taking a line drive off his right shin for the second time in as many starts. A week ago Thursday in Anaheim, Calif., a Casey Kotchman liner ended Wakefield's night after 4 1/3 innings. Just five batters into last night's game, and still in the first inning, Dmitri Young drove a ball off Wakefield's lower right leg.

But, after a few practice pitches, and a mound conference with Sox coaches, Wakefield remained in the game. He had allowed a run in that first inning, unearned, when leadoff hitter Placido Polanco reached on a Millar error, moved to second on a passed ball, and scored on an Ivan Rodriguez single. But, after being struck, Wakefield settled in, retiring seven of the next nine hitters before the walk-homer-double-homer sequence.

Behind, 5-3, the Sox tied it in the fifth on an RBI double to the corner in right by Ortiz, who was 4 for his last 40 before that at-bat. Ortiz advanced to third on a Ramirez single to right, then scored when Nixon grounded into a fielder's choice. Nixon had grounded back to the mound, and Johnson threw to second base, hoping for an inning-ending double play. But Ramirez, erased on the play, ran hard into second, pressuring the shortstop, McDonald, and Nixon ran hard down the line, barely beating McDonald's throw. That tied it, 5-5, with Nixon picking up his second RBI in as many at-bats.