The Red Sox haven't lost since Dustin Pedroia came to town for his retirement ceremony a week ago. Make of it what you will.
For Red Sox manager Alex Cora, the symbolism that came with punctuating his team's seven-game win streak wasn't pushed aside.
"It started with a tribute to No. 15, right? And we score 15 in the last game of the homestand," said Cora after his team's 15-1 win over the Royals Thursday afternoon. "That night was special. That night brought energy to the place. I know we've been having fun on Fridays here. It's a packed house, it's loud and it's fun. But just watching him out there and seeing the videos and all of that, I don't know if that has to do with the way we played but I think it was a good way to start it and today was a great way to end it."
The first-place Red Sox will lose again. The gravity that comes with a baseball season is too much for any ceremonial springboard, even one involving Pedroia.
But for one Red Sox player, the impact of June 25 at Fenway Park stretches beyond just wins and losses.
Christian Arroyo viewed the night in a somewhat unique light.
"One hundred percent it was special," Arroyo said of the night. "Getting a chance to watch ... It was special."
The heartstrings were pulled despite Arroyo still not getting to utter Word 1 to Pedroia. "I didn't get to. But I would love to," he said of meeting the former second baseman. "He was my favorite."
But this stretches beyond the kid from Tampa admiring a Red Sox player from afar. It's about what Arroyo wants to become. He wants to be the answer to what has been the Red Sox' player second base conundrum since that Manny Machado slide into Pedroia's knee.
And that night, that ceremony, only reinforced it.
"The thing for me was growing up a Rays fan, I kind of emulating my game after what Pedey did," Arroyo explained. "I got a little emotional out here watching him and listening to him talk. Granted, I've never talked to the guy. But as a player, getting a chance to see Big Papi's speech ... I used to watch the Rays play the Rangers because I loved Josh Hamilton and I watched them play the Red Sox and the Yankees. I was a big (Derek) Jeter fan and my family had spring training tickets and we would always go on the visiting side to see all the superstars. And the other team I always watched was Boston.
"Pedroia was my guy. He was small and he was a grinder and he was a hell of a player. I always gravitated to guys like that. He played the game the right way. His uniform was always dirty. That's how I played."
Since the beginning of 2018, the Red Sox' second base position has been a turnstile. Brock Holt has played the most games at the spot (116), with Eduardo Nunez (105) and Michael Chavis (64) trailing behind. No. 4 on the list is now Arroyo, the former first-round pick who has overcome injuries and disbelieving teams to make a run at regular duty.
While hand and knee injuries have presented minor bumps in the road this season, the 26-year-old's performance offensively and defensively has put him in the conversation to become the heir apparent.
"Absolutely. That's how it will always be for me," said Arroyo when asked if seeing Pedroia cemented the desire to be the next true Red Sox everyday second baseman.
"It's sick. It's awesome. It's one of those things where I appreciate every opportunity I've been given. To be able to do it now with this organization and the team, it's unparalleled. It's awesome.
"I don't think I am able to do what I'm doing without going through what I did. I think everything I went through is what made me and the person I am today. It's part of growth. It doesn't matter if you're a superstar at the age of 20 or you're 30 years old and you just figured it out. At one point you're going to deal with adversity and it's how you learn from it. For me, I dealt with it at a young age thankfully, and I learned a lot from it. It helped me this year. It's going to help me down the road. It's going to help me even last year year. It's one of those things where as long as you're willing to take a situation that might not be ideal and make it an ideal situation for you and learn from it ... It's all about what you get out of it. It's all about perspective. You can look at a situation and think it's crappy, or you can look at a situation and see it as a learning scenario, and that's what I tried to do. I've tried to make everything a learning situation."
And last Friday the lesson was that it's a good idea to emulate Dustin Pedroia.