BOSTON - Xander Bogaerts has faced the media after countless losses featuring an invisible offense.
But no matter how poorly the team played, he'd remain positive. He'd speak about the talent, the bright spots (there weren't many), and the couple of hits they were away from turning this thing around.
It was enough to make you wonder if he was talking about the same team.
But perhaps Tuesday's offensive display was what he's been envisioning.
The Sox crossed the plate nine times on 18 hits (yes, they should have scored more runs early on).
The 18 hits matched a season-high, and their nine extra-base hits were the most since Apr. 25. 2015. Those extra-base hits included three triples (Brock Holt, Mookie Betts, and Alejandro De Aza). The Sox haven't had three triples in the same game since Sept. 7, 1985. Holt added three more hits for the cycle, the first one for a Red Sox player since John Valentin on Jun. 6, 1996.
Every player in the starting lineup recorded at least one hit, and six had multiple hits.
So yes, it was a big day at the plate - and one in which Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez (who John Farrell said after the game are both day-to-day) were out for.
While Bogaerts sounded similar after Tuesday's win as he has in plenty of losses, this time he had a smile on his face.
"Just take it one game at a time," said Bogaerts, who had two hits in the cleanup spot. "Try to go up there, play as hard as you can, put up good at-bats, keep putting up good swings and hopefully find some holes."
Farrell noted that even without the likes of Pedroia or Ramirez, the team is capable of days like this. He specifically mentioned Pablo Sandoval and Betts' improved play as of late. Sandoval has hit safely in his last seven games and is batting .400 over his last nine games. Betts had his second straight three-hit game and went 7-for-10 over the team's five-game homestand (he missed two games). He was a home run shy of the cycle on Tuesday.
Even Mike Napoli got in on the action, breaking out of an 0-for-18 slump with two hits.
So is this the kind of game the team can build off of?
"I hope so," Holt said. "We're just going to come to play every day and try and put some wins together and put some good games together. That's what we need to do. I think today was a good offense day for us and we need to keep that mind set going forward."
And has Bogaerts has preached all season, they're only looking at the game in front of them.
"Don't worry about the future, don't worry about 10-game, 20-game winning streak," he said. "Let's just worry about one game and one game at a time and keep winning every game."