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DAN SHAUGHNESSY

Blowout in New York is where Red Sox really changed their tune

Eduardo Nunez, Craig Kimbrel, and Christian Vazquez exult after being the Yankees in New York.Jim Davis/Globe Staff

HOUSTON — The turning point might have been Oct. 6 when Yankees slugger Aaron Judge strolled and trolled past the Red Sox clubhouse after New York’s “big” playoff win at Fenway Park.

Judge and the mighty Bronx Bombers had just hit three monstrous homers in a 6-2 win, and the 6-foot-7-inch slugger felt comfortable playing Sinatra’s “New York, New York’’ on his Bluetooth speaker as he passed the Sox locker room in the underbelly of ancient Fenway.

The image went viral, and so did all the fears of doom about the 2018 Red Sox. Despite their record-breaking regular-season success, there were still regional concerns that these Sox were 108-win show ponies who were going to fold again in October. David Price (pulled in the second inning of Game 2) was once again a playoff bust and these front-running Sox were going to cave — just as they had in 2016 and 2017.

And then they went into the belly of the Bronx and beat the Yankees, 16-1 and 4-3, vaporizing the Steinbrenner Athletic Club on back-to-back nights. Boston’s Division Series champs brazenly played Ol’ Blue Eyes’ classic during their champagne celebration.

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There it was. Beating, then mocking the Yankees, the Red Sox developed an edge that carried them to an amazing five-game wipeout of the world champion Astros and vaulted them into the 114th World Series starting Tuesday night at Fenway.

“A lot of guys doubted us,” said shortstop Xander Bogaerts. “I turned on the TV and everything is like, Yankees in four. I’m like, what is going on? How can we have 108 wins, and they’re like, the Yankees are going to win in four? I don’t understand.”

Said Midas manager Alex Cora, “I do feel that we grew up as a team going to Game 3 in New York. The sky was falling in Boston. It seemed like all of a sudden [people thought] we weren’t good.’’

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Cora is not imagining things. He is not being hyperbolic. Fans and media wiseguys alike were ready to pounce after the Game 2 loss at Fenway. The Sox had barely escaped in Game 1 (a 5-4 win that almost felt like a loss after the bullpen implosion), and there was a sense that they’d have trouble in New York.

But everything changed with that 16-1 beatdown in the House That Jeter Built. And the change carried over against Houston. Since losing Game 2 to the Yankees, the Red Sox have won six of seven postseason games by an aggregate score of 49-25. Like an army of steamrollers, they’ve flattened two 100-win teams.

They’ve won five straight road playoff games.

They’ve kept the edge.

It was on display in Houston Thursday night when they clinched the franchise’s 14th American League pennant. The wildly talented Astros were favored to win that series after their three-game sweep of a good Cleveland team.

When Houston won Game 1 in Boston, the age-old doubts about the Red Sox resurfaced. Landing in Houston, the Sox became aware of an Instagram video posted by Astros star Alex Bregman. It was footage of three Astros (including Bregman) hitting back-to-back-to-back homers off Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi when Eovaldi pitched for Tampa Bay earlier this season. The video was headlined “lil pregame video work.’’

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In Game 3, Eovaldi smothered the Astros for six innings, beating the cocky champs, 8-2. That was the same night that South Boston’s Danny Picard broke the story of the Astros’ camera shenanigans, a Spygate scandal that infuriated Red Sox ownership.

One day later, the Sox bested Houston again in a 4-hour-33-minute epic, punctuated by Andrew Benintendi’s game-saving walkoff catch. Finally, Price stepped up on three days’ rest, pitching the game of his life, shutting out the Astros for six innings of the 4-1 clincher.

When Eovaldi struck out Bregman in the eighth, a camera caught Price in the Boston dugout hollering “Post that” in the direction of Bregman.

In other words: “Take that, you cheatin’, trollin’, no-longer-be-champion ’Stros!’’

In the postgame celebration, Cora went out of his way to defend his much-maligned ace.

“I don’t want to pick battles in the media,’’ said the manager. “But I was watching a show this morning on MLB Network and it was embarrassing the way they were talking about David Price, and I was offended by that.

“David Price is one of the best pitchers in the big leagues, and he [WFAN’s Evan Roberts] actually should apologize for that.’’

Attitude.

“We play in a city where sometimes winning is a relief,’’ Cora acknowledged. “We’re not doing that. We really are enjoying the ride, the journey.

“We show up, we get the information, we play, and see what happens at the end. And that’s been the most impressive thing about this group — they’ve been very consistent since Day One in spring training all the way to Oct. 18.’’

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All the way to the World Series.

But never forget that it was kickstarted in New York, New York.


Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com