As Josh Beckett buried the tip of his tee on the first of the 18 ill-advised holes he played with Clay Buchholz back on May 3, he did so with his Red Sox standing last in the American League East, 5 1/2 games back in the division and 2 1/2 out of a playoff spot.

If the starting pitcher made the personal decision to again spend one of his “18 off days” on the golf course Thursday, he did so with his Red Sox still last in the East, still 5 1/2 back in the division, and having made only a minor gain to within a game and a half of postseason position — essentially meaning that after playing 20 games in 20 days the Sox were basically in the same place they were when it began.

But, boy, does that spot feel different.

Back then they'd lost three of four, and proof of their collective rut came when those troubles turned into losing eight of nine. Their pitching was brutal. Beckett appeared to be poison. Manager Bobby Valentine looked as though the game had passed him by. And an injury-riddled offense had the look of an all-or-nothing attack.

But now, for the first time since the calamitous collapse of September 2011, and in spite of the steep peaks and valleys that defined the early portion of 2012, there is finally a sense that all-or-nothing has given way to all-for-one, and the Red Sox are becoming the team most expected them to be — even if so many places the individual pieces aren't quite who or what they were expected to be.

That's sort of the point, though. While the instinct is to designate scapegoats and heroes, and quickly delineate blame and credit, it's not quite so simple. Far more than singular successes or failures, what becomes of Boston over its remaining 118 games will be determined by its ability to function as a unit feeding off contributions from all corners of the roster, rather than relying on a few solo stars.

And that's why the Sox deservedly return to Fenway tonight feeling so good about the direction they're headed.

“I couldn't be more happy with the way the guys reacted to all this stuff,” Valentine told reporters in Baltimore on Wednesday. “The schedule, the travel, the injuries, the weather. There's been no complaining; guys going well beyond the call of duty.

“For me, it's a great thing to see as a manager, the way they've really come together.”

Maybe the ultimate testament to winning with help from everybody came the same day as Valentine's comments, when the Sox won their rubber match with the Orioles on the strength of a terrific catch by Che-Hsuan Lin and homers from Daniel Nava and Scott Podsednik — effectively meaning that they beat their division's leaders on the strength of their ninth, 10th and 11th outfielders.

But it's gone beyond that lately, when Boston has won 10 of 13, and crawled back to .500 by finding balance and diversity that didn't exist previously. In the course of those 10 wins, the Sox offense only once scored in double figures; prior to that, they were feast-or-famine at 5-18 when failing to score 10 runs or more. Though they still have the second-worst earned run average in the AL, they've allowed just 3.1 runs over these past 13 games, compared with 5.8 over the 31 previous affairs.

And that improvement comes in a stretch in which they played six games against first-place teams, eight games against currently projected playoff teams, and three more against a Phillies team that had baseball's best record a year ago. That doesn't happen without a collective effort.

As always, it starts with the top of the pitching staff, with Beckett and Jon Lester combining to go 4-0 with a 1.82 ERA since Beckett was booed off the mound a couple weeks ago — but it surely doesn't stop there.

Adrian Gonzalez, an MVP-caliber veteran and gold glove first baseman, voluntarily moved to right field to help the team and has handled his business effectively there. Kevin Youkilis has returned to the lineup looking rejuvenated, homering among three hits in his first two games.

Will Middlebrooks worked through his slump, scratching out of a 6-for-36 skid to go 9-for his next-23. David Ortiz is producing at a level where he and the Rangers' Josh Hamilton are only AL hitters with 10 homers, 30 RBIs and a .300 batting average.

Mike Aviles, doing the job with his bat and his glove, ranks ninth among AL position players in baseballreference.com's calculation of wins against replacement (WAR). And led by Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Sox catchers have a league-best .899 on-base plus slugging, which features a major-league leading .560 slugging percentage.

Alfredo Aceves has converted nine consecutive save chances, posting a 0.96 ERA and limiting hitters to a .197 average since April 21. Emerging setup man Vicente Padilla has stranded all 15 baserunners he's inherited this season.

Andrew Miller continues to command beyond all expectation, walking just two of the 31 batters he's faced. Rich Hill has been hell on lefties, holding them to a .105 mark. And starter Felix Doubront's 9.54 strikeouts per nine innings are fourth-best in the AL, and tops among qualifying lefties.

The starters earned wins in nine of Boston's 10 wins over this recent stretch, which helps explain why middle man Scott Atchison has thrown only 10 pitches since May 13 despite owning a 1.13 ERA for the season. And it says a lot, too, that the Sox are winning despite the rather pedestrian play of Dustin Pedroia, who has an on-base percentage of just .281 over the past 13 games. He may well be the team's best player, but he's been little more than ordinary of late — yet the team is winning.

That bodes well for the way things are going. And the way things could go from here forward.

“If we play like this the rest of the season,” Valentine told NESN's viewers on Wednesday, “we're going to win a championship.”

That's still a bit ambitious. Especially for the manager of a last-place team that needed three weeks to gain a single game on the second wild card.

But it's starting to feel less crazy every day.

Dave D'Onofrio covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.