BOSTON -- As the opener and bullpen games became part of baseball lexicon over the past couple of seasons, the Red Sox had no problem letting those things pass them by, preferring to go with a sturdy rotation that helped them win the 2018 World Series.

However, the attrition of a challenging title defense has left Boston manager Alex Cora with no choice but to go, as he likes to say, "all in," on the concept during this rivalry weekend.

The plan worked masterfully for Cora and the Red Sox in Friday's 6-1 victory over the Yankees at Fenway Park.

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It started with a brilliant opener outing from veteran righty Jhoulys Chacín, who made his debut for the Sox by throwing two perfect innings that included four strikeouts.

Chacin signed a Minor League deal with the Sox less than a week ago, and it was hard to know what to expect from a pitcher who went 3-10 with a 5.79 ERA for the Brewers this season and hadn't pitched since July 24.

In fact, until his first pitch of Friday's game, he hadn't even thrown a pitch with a batter standing in the box since that last start for Milwaukee.

"That's why I was worried about just throwing strikes," said Chacin. "It's not the same as throwing bullpens -- especially against the Yankees, they have a really good lineup. I was just trying to see the glove and hit the glove. After that, just forget about everything and try to have fun. Good experience for me to pitch in the Yankees-Boston rivalry."

From there, Cora went to a collection of more familiar faces in Josh Taylor, Marcus Walden, Andrew Cashner, Ryan Weber, Darwinzon Hernandez and Bobby Poyner to mostly dazzling results. The heavy-hitting Yankees mustered just three hits on the night.

"It's a little bit different, but it's September baseball unfortunately," said Yankees center fielder Brett Gardner. "We've got three more weeks of that. It's part of the game and it doesn't matter who we're facing or how many times we face them. Our job is to go out there and put good at-bats together and try to score runs and obviously do a little better job than we did tonight. So hopefully we saved some for tomorrow."

What did all seven pitchers who appeared for Boston in Friday's game have in common? None of them were on the Opening Day roster.

"Like I said in Spring Training, it takes more than the guys that you take on Opening Day to win a World Series," said Cora. "We proved it last year. I think it's, what, 27 [pitchers this season]? We've got 21 here [now]. That's the way it works. And, honestly, they've done an outstanding job throughout the last month and a half. We did it in Anaheim. They did it today. And we're planning on going tomorrow and doing the same thing."

Saturday's opener will be righty Travis Lakins. Cora will go back to the traditional route on Sunday and Monday with starters Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez, respectively.

It isn't as if Cora is doing the less conventional method by choice. Chris Sale is done for the season. David Price has pitched just once since Aug. 4, and there's no definitive word on when he will pitch again.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are just trying to keep some hope alive in their uphill climb to secure a postseason berth.

"I mean, we're just in a position right now where we have to do this," said Cora.

Right now, Cora has strength in numbers, if nothing else, with 21 pitchers on his September roster. Starting next season, MLB will cap rosters at 28 players in September.

"We know it's going to change next year," said Cora. "We were actually talking about it in the eighth inning. But, right now, this is the way we have to go. We've got guys that can get people out. We just have to make sure we find the right matchup for them to go and attack guys."

Attack they did on Friday.

Thanks to the shutdown pitching, the offense had some time to get into a groove. And Mitch Moreland, celebrating his 34th birthday, punctuated a four-run fourth inning with a three-run homer to right against Yankees starter Domingo German. Xander Bogaerts tacked on two more with a double in the fifth.

"We're not in the best of spots, but everybody in here is continuing to fight and try to find ways to go out and produce and help the team win," said Moreland. "Obviously you can see all the extra lockers in here. I saw the picture on the website of the bullpen the other night. It's pretty impressive right now. All these guys are in here and doing everything they can to help the team win. We're going to give it our best shot."