DETROIT (KRT) – The Boston Red Sox wanted Alex Rodriguez to replace Nomar Garciaparra at shortstop this season.

They have wound up with Orlando Cabrera as Garciaparra’s replacement.

It sounds like a comedown, but the change might allow the Red Sox to win the World Series for the first time since 1918.

Provided they can reach the post season.

Upon arriving at Comerica Park Friday night for their first game of the season with the Tigers, the Red Sox – despite having the highest payroll in baseball aside from the Yankees-have plummeted to a distant second to Rodriguez and the Yankees in the American League East and likely can make the playoffs only by winning the wild-card race, in which they trail front-runner Oakland by 11/2 games.

Amid other problems such as injuries and an alleged lack of intensity, Boston has shown that defense can drag down even a high-priced team. Thus came last weekend’s four-team Garciaparra trade in which the Red Sox acquired Montreal’s Cabrera and Minnesota first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, each a former Gold Glove winner. When injured second baseman Pokey Reese returns, the Red Sox will suddenly have an infield defense capable of swaying a postseason series, the way Florida’s did against the Yankees in last year’s World Series.

Boston general manager Theo Epstein said he traded the iconic Garciaparra because the team’s defense “has not become championship-caliber” and he could not allow it to become “a fatal flaw.” Perhaps it already has.

As reported by the Boston Globe, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has said more than once that never in his career has he seen a team hurt by errors as much as these Red Sox, who lead the league in unearned runs. .

Other than the Tigers, the Red Sox have the worst one-run record in the league, 7-14. In five of the one-run losses, the Red Sox have yielded at least one unearned run. That doesn’t count last Sunday’s one-run loss in which two Red Sox misplays on the game-tying sacrifice fly allowed the winning run to score from second. That’s at least six one-run defeats that can be traced in part to bad defense – losses that might keep them out of the postseason.

Yet Boston could have all the ingredients a team needs to win in the playoffs and World Series: one or two dominant starting pitchers (Schilling and Pedro Martinez), a bullpen led by an established closer (Keith Foulke), and now a defense that makes all the routine plays and a few spectacular ones.

With Garciaparra, the Cubs have gone 4-0 and have taken over the National League wild-card lead. The Garciaparra saga might make this the best year of all for a Cubs-Red Sox World Series. But first Boston has to make enough plays to win enough close games to make the postseason.