TORONTO -- There was a lot for these Red Sox to buy into.
New manager. New coaching staff. New way to prepare for games. New way of positioning fielders. New way of preparing pitchers for a season. New way of managing playing time. The list went on.
There had to be buy-in, and there was. Alex Cora noticed it from the get-go. But you know what really has made the push-back nonexistent, even in the midst of this current three-game losing streak? Winning ... a lot.
"It was definitely a good thing," said Red Sox starter David Price of his team's 17-2 start. "We switched things up. A lot of new pieces here with the coaching staff, doing different things. Starters taking it slow in spring training, if the starters stumbled out of the gate that would have been talked about a lot. It wouldn't have mattered how good we felt or how healthy we felt, if we were out there not getting those results that would have been talked about. It was good we got good results early on. It makes it easier for everybody."
Cora downplays the importance of needing success out of the gate to prove the effectiveness of the changes, pointing to the Phillies slow start and subsequent resurgence under new manager Gabe Kapler. "They didn't have the greatest of starts and they're buying in," he said of Philadelphia. "It wasn't like it was a must. I don't feel that way. I feel like [the Red Sox] were buying into it anyway."
But there is something about getting immediate results in Boston that allows for the kind of leniency when things do go awry.
It happened in 2013, with that group embedding themselves in the postseason conversation thanks to a 19-8 start to begin John Farrell's first season. Talk to the people with the Blue Jays and they will tell you about the uphill climb that new regime had when starting slow a season ago.
Cora might not have felt it was necessary, but not everybody has the same perspective of the man putting the plan in place.
"A lot," said Price when asked what a difference the hot start made. "If we played .500 baseball I'm sure Alex would have been a lot of tougher. He would have really experienced it in total at first, and that's tough. For us to go out and play the way that we have makes it easier on everybody, including our manager. That was what we needed to do. It was a very good start. That definitely helped.
"We have to trust the process. A lot of people say that, but this isn't a place for the process. Boston is very result-driven and for us to go out there and get the results the we got in those first 19 games that was good."
The historic stretch to begin the season certainly wasn't the be-all, end-all. As Cora points out, Kapler weathered the storm, and it would appear as though Aaron Boone's rocky start has morphed into something more palatable for the Yankees.
But when there are bumps in the road, such as a three-game losing streak, and people are still settling into a new way of doing things, every kind of buffer counts. And the Red Sox found themselves a pretty good one in 17 wins in their first 19 games.
