BOSTON — Having lost five of their previous six games, the Red Sox came into Monday night needing no further incentive to get their series with the New York Mets off to a good start.

Just in case, however, they found one in the dugout.

With Alex Cora away from the team for the day to attend his daughter’s graduation from Boston College, bench coach Ramon Vazquez was serving as the team’s interim manager. The team desperately wanted his debut as manager a successful one.

“There was some big cheers when he came into the clubhouse for the high-five line post-game,” said winning pitcher Justin Wilson, after the Red Sox defeated the Mets 3-1.

There were more than cheers, apparently. Vazquez was a bit tardy for his post-game media availability and apologized for arriving with a towel around his neck and shower shoes. The players had doused him well in a celebratory beer shower.

“I only played here for half a season,” said Vazquez reflecting on his playing career. “But I’ve been here (on the coaching staff) with Alex since ’18. This is a special place. The fact that I was able to manage my first game in the big leagues with this organization and in this ballpark, it makes it even more special.

“I’m officially retired as a manager from today on, so yeah, it’s exciting. Thank God it happened for me. I’m very excited by it.”

During the game, Vazquez pushed all the right buttons. He lifted starter Hunter Dobbins (66 pitches) with two outs in the fifth inning, calling on lefty Justin Wilson to face switch-hitting Francisco Lindor with runners at the corners and Wilson fanned Lindor in an epic at-bat.

An inning later, with a baserunner on third and two out, he pulled Wilson in favor or Greg Weissert, who retired Mark Vientos on a flyout to right, stranding the runner.

Finally, with runners at the corners in the seventh, he took out Weissert for Justin Slaten, who induced an inning-ending groundout from Lindor.

For one night anyway, every move he made worked, which may be why Vazquez jokingly announced his “retirement” – it seldom works that way.

“It was awesome,” gushed Jarren Duran, who helped get Vazquez a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning. “I saw (reporters) kind of swarming him in the dugout (pregame), so it was kind of cool, seeing him get a bunch of media attention.

“We’re fighting, we’re grinding right now, so to be able to have something like that help get our mind off everything is pretty awesome.”

Duran said that during the game, the atmosphere in the dugout was no different than on other nights.

“It felt the same,” said Duran. “Ramon and AC are really close and it felt the same.”

Duran was perhaps the only person on the roster who had witnessed Vazquez managing before, having played for the bench coach in Puerto Rico in winter ball a few years back.

“I’d say here he’s a little more calm,” said Duran. “In Puerto Rico, we got after it a little bit. But he’s the same guy on and off the field. I love playing for him. It’s awesome.”