Last week the Red Sox were reeling. The bats were ice cold, the defense had regressed and the club was coming off a disastrous pitching performance in a deflating 16-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. That dropped the Red Sox to 8-10 on the season and into fourth place in the AL East, a far cry from what anyone expected entering the season.

What a difference a week makes.

Following that blowout at Steinbrenner Field the Red Sox won six of their next seven games, putting the club just a half-game behind the New York Yankees for first in the AL East entering Wednesday. The Red Sox had homered in nine straight games after going an entire week without leaving the ballpark, the club’s starting pitchers had allowed two or fewer runs in seven straight games, and the confounding defensive miscues had largely been cleaned up.

What happened? As third baseman Alex Bregman tells it, there’s no magic bullet. The team is just playing better.

“In this league it comes down to execution, and if you execute you’re going to win baseball games and if you don’t execute you’re not. That’s in all phases of the game, offense, defense, baserunning, pitching, all of it,” Bregman said prior to Wednesday’s game. “I think it’s important for all of us to focus on preparation, execution and keep our head down and worry about the next pitch. It’s way too early to be thinking about if it’s a fast or slow start in my opinion, I think it’s just important to focus on the next game at hand.”

Bregman knows better than anyone that a poor start doesn’t have to spell doom for an entire season. Last season his Houston Astros got off to a horrible start, at one point sitting 12-24 and last in the AL West as late as May 8. But by season’s end the Astros wound up winning the division by four games, qualifying for the playoffs for the eighth straight year.

This year’s Red Sox hadn’t fallen into nearly as deep a hole, but the veteran infielder believes the way forward for any successful team is straightforward consistency.

“The level of at bat has definitely improved as the season has gone on, normally you see that a lot early in the year across the game, just getting more at bats,” Bregman said. “I think the focus and the execution on the gameplan has gone really well for us offensively this last week.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora noted that as bad as the club’s performance had been, there were some extenuating circumstances at play too.

“That first homestand, without making excuses, I played here before, managed here, and that was probably the coldest series I’ve ever been a part of,” Cora said. “The guys being able to feel their hands and working on their swing, structure comes into play, night games and all that stuff. I think now we’re in a good spot.”

Offensively the Red Sox were never going to be as bad as they looked, at one point averaging fewer than two runs per game over an eight game stretch between April 7-14. But the defensive struggles were concerning, especially given how outside of Garrett Crochet the majority of Boston’s starting rotation relies on drawing weak contact to succeed.

Considering Boston is starting five players who could plausibly contend for a Gold Glove — Bregman and shortstop Trevor Story in the infield plus all three regular outfielders — the idea that the club could have the most errors in baseball (25) seemed like a recipe for disaster. But even if that is the case, Cora said there have been good things happening under the hood.

“We’re leading the league in errors but we’re top three in other metrics. I hate errors, don’t get me wrong, but total chances (931) we’re No. 1 in the league, assists (236) we’re No. (2) in the league, putouts we’re No. (2) in the league (670), so they’re putting the ball in play so we have to make plays,” Cora said. “I think we went through a stage there that we really struggled. Alex struggled throwing the ball, but like I told him that week, this is the first time you’re playing at home and it’s 25 degrees. It’s always been 70 in that dome, right? So there’s a lot of adjustments and little by little we’re coming out of it. Are we perfect right now? No, but we can be a great defensive team.”

Most important of all, the Red Sox have been a more consistent team. Now the key will be to maintain that level of play over periods of weeks and months, not days, the way Bregman’s Astros did last season to climb out of their early hole.