Happy 2019. The new year is a time to make resolutions as we look back on the highs and lows of the past year. Boston further cemented its spot as the most successful – and most hated – sports city in America with another major sports championship in 2018. That’s 11 in 18 years. The Golden Era of Boston Sports continues.

The Red Sox gave us the ultimate high, winning their fourth World Series in 15 years. It was a remarkable run that saw the team collect a team-record 108 regular-season victories before marching through the playoffs with an 11-3 record against the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers.

Any baseball season is a marathon, punctuated with highs and lows. Yet the Red Sox hit their highest and lowest points of this seven-month campaign in a 24-hour span.

The low point came when Max Muncy of the Dodgers ended the longest game in World Series history with an 18th-inning home run off Nathan Eovaldi. Dodger Stadium came to life, and L.A. surely had put itself back in the series with the Game 3 win. It was the type of loss that would crush the psyche of most teams.

The Red Sox weren’t like most teams. Manager Alex Cora gathered his group together and reminded them it took the Dodgers the equivalent of two full games to finally win a game. By the time the Sox returned to their hotel they had put the loss behind them.

What happened in the following hours defined this championship team. Pitchers began walking into Cora’s office telling him they were available to pitch in Game 4. Game 1 starter Chris Sale wanted the ball. So did Game 2 starter David Price.

Rick Porcello told Cora he could start. For the second straight night.

Cora said later it felt like a scene from the movie “Rudy.” All that was lacking was the pile of jerseys on his desk.

The rookie manager was never more proud of his team. He told them to sleep well. He also told them there would be no batting practice before Game 4. Many of his players were surprised. Teams always take BP before World Series games. Sure enough, the Dodgers were out there taking their practice cuts late the next afternoon.

Several players have told me that’s when they truly put the marathon loss behind them. Skipping BP was what you did in the regular season. It’s what you did after a long trip or when you had a Saturday matinee just hours after a Friday night game. If Cora could approach this crucial October game with the same mindset he had in May or June, then the players knew they’d have to move on from the loss like they did any other in a 162-game season.

Nonetheless the Sox trailed the Dodgers 4-0 in the seventh inning of Game 4. It certainly seemed like the Dodgers were about to tie the series and steal all the momentum from Boston. That’s when the high point of this championship occurred. Mitch Moreland delivered the first big blow of the game – a pinch-hit, three-run homer that brought the Sox dugout to life.

Steve Pearce became Mr. October ’18 with four RBI as the Sox scored nine unanswered runs. It was a remarkable turnaround for the champs and a stunning collapse for the Dodgers at home. A night later Pearce hit two more home runs and stole World Series MVP honors from Price, who authored his own turnaround with a brilliant Game 5 performance.

A few weeks ago I asked Pearce if he thought he earned the MVP award with his second homer of that final game. “I knew they had to give it to someone,” he said with a smile.

It’s tough to top a two-homer effort in the final game of a baseball season. Yet it was the comeback in Game 4 that was the highest point of this remarkable season.

A comeback made all the more remarkable because it happened about 20 hours after the season’s lowest point.

Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.

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