Arrival of Yankees to Fenway marks the real start of the season

Now comes the hard part.

After beating up on Florida’s two “major league’’ franchises (combined record to date: 5-14), the soft opening of the 2018 Red Sox season is behind them.

Beginning Tuesday night, the Red Sox will play their first games of the schedule against an honest-to-goodness playoff contender in the form of the New York Yankees (5-5).

Give credit to the Red Sox for handling their business against the failing Fish teams. It’s not their fault the schedule-maker presented them with such an easy path through the first week and a half of the season. And while some of the games were closer than they would have liked – five one-run games, and two in extra innings – the Red Sox ultimately did what they were supposed to do, winning eight of nine.

Regardless of the opposition, the first nine games have imbued the Red Sox with a level of early-season confidence.

“I don’t know if that group needs confidence,’’ countered manager Alex Cora after the Sox erased a five-run deficit Sunday with a six-run rally in the eighth to post their eighth win in a row. “They’re playing; they don’t really know what’s going on. They’re just playing baseball and having fun with it. They prepare themselves and they just go out (and have fun).

“I don’t think they need confidence. Coming out of spring training, we felt great about that group and they felt great as a group.’’

Some of that may have stemmed from the way the Sox finished up spring training. While making sure to emphasize that spring training records aren’t terribly consequential, Cora felt how the Sox played in the final two weeks of the Grapefruit League schedule was noteworthy.

“We’ve been playing good baseball for a month now,’’ he said. “I know the (spring training) record doesn’t count, but we were playing good baseball. We were playing fast, we were catching the ball and we were pitching. And regardless of whether it was Fort Myers, Tampa or (Boston), it doesn’t matter: when you play good baseball, you have good results.’’

They’ve received quality starting pitching in every game but one, haven’t made an error in the field, and have demonstrated an ability to win low-scoring games – a talent which steadfastly eluded them in 2017.

There are, of course, imperfections. The lineup, bolstered by the addition of J.D. Martinez, has yet to reach its potential and the Sox have managed just seven homers in the first nine games, ranking them 11^th in the American League.

In addition, the bullpen has been spotty. Carson Smith, tabbed as an important part of the team’s set-up committee, has a 2.455 WHIP after five appearances, with nearly as many walks (four) as strikeouts (five). For the Red Sox to succeed, Smith – or someone else – will have to emerge as a dependable bridge to closer Craig Kimbrel.

For all that, the Red Sox may be catching the Yankees at the right time, since they are not without their own issues.

Twice in the first 10 games, Giancarlo Stanton has registered five-strikeout games, making for a rough start to his Yankee career. In 42 at-bats so far, Stanton has struck out almost half (20) the time. Few doubt Stanton will recover, but for now, he appears to be yet another classic case of a new player trying too hard to please teammates and fans.

Injuries have already hit the Yankees hard: in one stretch in their opening series, they lost starting center fielder Aaron Hicks (intercostal strain) to the DL, and soon after, his replacement from Triple-A, Billy McKinney (left shoulder strain) joined him on the sidelines. Hicks could be activated in time for Tuesday’s series opener.

First baseman Greg Bird will miss at least the first two months of the season with a recurrence of the foot injury which sidelined him for a chunk of last season.

In a marathon 14-inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, four players left the game due to injury, with two – infielder Brandon Drury and starter CC Sabathia – landing on the disabled list.

And while the Red Sox have lined up their top three starters for the upcoming series (Chris Sale Tuesday, David Price Wednesday and Rick Porcello Thursday), the Yankees are undecided on a starter for the third game.

No one expects much to be settled over the next three days, not two weeks into the season. There will be 16 more games head-to-head between the rivals to follow, including the final three games of the season at Fenway. In all likelihood, the division will be decided between this one and that one.

But for now, consider it the ‘’hard opening’’ to the 2018 season – and a truer test of the Red Sox’ mettle.