Adam Ottavino and Garrett Whitlock were doing what they do, sitting on opposite ends of a chess board, when Alex Cora walked by.
"Hey, AC, do you play chess?" Ottavino asked.
Cora paused, looked at the pair and said without hesitation, "When it turns 7 o'clock I play chess every night."
"We were like, 'That was pretty cool.' That's El Jefe (the chief) right there," Whitlock told WEEI.com. "That was awesome."
Fair enough. The strategy that is associated with chess can come in multiple forms. But for a group of Red Sox players -- led by Ottavino and his new protégé Whitlock -- it's all about the pieces moving around the board.
It's a game that has suddenly become a centerpiece in this Red Sox clubhouse.
"I love chess. And (baseball) is like a chess match. But I love chess," Whitlock said. "Ottavino is the chess master of the team. He's the best chess guy we've got. (Nick) Pivetta is extremely good at chess. (Christian) Vazquez is very good at chess. So we've got our little chess club.
"I've never been into it, but I got into it and started watching videos and learning and stuff like that starting when we were in Baltimore. Otto got me onto the whole chess.com app and now I'm doing puzzles every day."
The origins of this club within the club dates back to the lessons Ottavino learned from his uncle. That was who instilled the intricacies of the game with the Red Sox reliever, whose passion for the game truly started gaining momentum while playing in Colorado.
But with a new team came uncertainty if there was actually going to be playing partners for Ottavino. Fortunately for the reliever, there was an inquisitive fellow member of the Red Sox bullpen that was ready to catch the chess bug.
"Whitlock was super interested right away," Ottavino said. "I think he had just watched (the show) 'Queen's Gambit.' I have two magnetic chessboards so I started bringing them in."
Whitlock's level of infatuation with the game was punctuated on his birthday when his wife's gift was a hand-crafted board.
"I always liked chess, but I never thought I would be this into it," Whitlock said. "I'm learning openings and chess theories. It's a lot of fun. I don't know if I ever will be able to catch (Ottavino). You see how cerebral he is out on the mound, it's even much more so with chess. I mean he's a mastermind. He's very, very smart so I don't know if I will ever be able to catch him on the chess board."
But here's the thing: Whitlock did catch the master ... beating Ottavino just one time.
"He was just like, 'That was a great game. You played really well.' And then the next day he came back and whooped my tail," the rookie said. "That was redemption."
"He's doing more than me but I know a lot of that stuff because my uncle taught me that way," Ottavino said of Whitlock. "All the openings and defenses and stuff.
"My daughter takes chess lessons. I think it's helping her. It's interesting. We're going to find out. It helps her see deeper a little bit. She has a different perspective because of it."
And about that connection between baseball and chess ... Well, everybody looks at it a little different.
"Baseball? Yes and no. They say it's a chess match, but it's more like a guessing game," Ottavino explained. "Where in chess there is a lot more you can do."
It's a reality a bunch of players are finding out on daily basis ... and, unlike their manager, they don't have to wait until 7 p.m.