FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Florida sun has a way of making things brighter. That’s why snowbirds from the north have always flocked here to escape the cold, harsh reality of a New England winter.

It’s also why baseball fans don’t make judgments about the coming season based on a few early days of spring training. Most are expecting the worst from a team that didn’t have a very exciting offseason.

Yet the first few games of the Grapefruit League season offered a little hope for the summer ahead. The Red Sox put their best foot forward where it matters most. They got strong starts from a group of pitchers who hope to play an important role in 2024.

Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello both looked good on Sunday as the Sox won a pair of split-squad games over the Twins and Braves. In Fort Myers, Giolito made a solid first impression over two scoreless innings. The 6-foot-6 righty hit 94 mph with his fastball and needed only five pitches to retire Minnesota in order in his second and final inning of work.

Giolito, who has spent the majority of his major league career with the Chicago White Sox (with stints with the Angels and Guardians last season), was impressed by the crowd of 9,352 at JetBlue Park.

“This is a hell of a spring training crowd,” Giolito told NESN’s Jahmai Webster when his work was through. “It’s got me pumped to play in Boston.”

Giolito was the lone starting pitcher added to the roster this offseason. Bello, only 24, returns to the rotation after showing glimpses of dominance in 2023. Facing a stacked lineup of Atlanta hitters in North Port, Florida, Bello also threw two scoreless innings while striking out three batters.

Last year Bello looked the part of the ace over the first half of the season, with a 3.04 ERA at the All-Star break. The wear and tear of a big-league season, however, caught up with him after that. Bello faltered with a 5.49 ERA over his final 14 starts after the break.

On Monday, Red Sox Manager Alex Cora said Bello would not be pitching in the MLB World Tour preseason games taking place in the Dominican Republic. Bello, a proud son of the island, told reporters last week that it would be a thrill to face Tampa Bay at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo next month.

Instead, Cora is keeping his budding star in line for the regular season.

“The goal here is to get him ready to pitch in the big leagues,” said Cora, “to pitch in the regular season as soon as possible.”

Could that be Opening Day? It’s not out of the question. The Red Sox haven’t had a homegrown pitcher developed in the system take the ball for the opener since Clay Buchholz in 2015. Bello has made it clear he would relish the honor. He spent the winter working with Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez and says his goal is to pitch in the All-Star Game.

Cora likes to use the expression “the best version of himself” when talking about his players. If his team has any chance of surprising people this summer it will need just about everyone to be exactly that – especially the pitchers who are named to the starting rotation.

The manager said over the weekend that Bello, Giolito and Nick Pivetta will be part of that quintet. Kutter Crawford has a leg up on the competition for the fourth spot. That leaves the final opening for Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck or Josh Winckowski.

Whitlock threw his own pair of scoreless innings on Friday against the Orioles while Houck made his first start on Monday, showing an uptick in velocity in two scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies.

With that early success it was easy to see a formidable group of starting pitchers coming together in the warm Florida sun. Time will tell if it stacks up in the colder climate – and harsher light – when the regular season begins in late March.

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

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