ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Chris Sale’s six shutout innings were followed by David Price’s seven shutout innings. Rick Porcello extended the streak to 18 innings Saturday before he allowed the first run surrendered by a Red Sox starter this season during a 3-2 Red Sox win.

This is exactly what new pitching coach Dana LeVangie had in mind. If he can get two former Cy Young winners (Price and Porcello) and a six-time All-Star (Sale) all in synch and healthy, the Red Sox will have a memorable 2018.

So far the game plan of easing them into their spring training outings has worked out famously. All three pitchers worked in minor league games, not always in major league exhibition games. Price and Sale sometimes worked in controlled, situational games where they would throw a maximum 15 pitches per inning and then get up and down three or four times.

Again, we’re three games in, the first start for each pitcher. Who knows what may happen over the next 159 games. But this was a team that was built with elite starting pitching, though it hasn’t always gone that way. Sale was the only one of the top three starters who had a good season in 2017. Price was hurt, reducing his workload to 11 starts, while Porcello had the worst season of his career — 11-17 with an ERA of 4.65. Porcello’s career has pretty much gone one good season, one bad, and this was a good way to start what’s supposed to be a good year.

The key for all three starters has been getting ahead on the count. Sale didn’t have his best command in Game 1, but a sure sign of a good pitcher is one who can win without his best stuff.

Porcello allowed his only run in the sixth inning. The run scored after he’d left the game when Joey Wendle hit a sacrifice fly off Heath Hembree that scored Carlos Gomez. Porcello had allowed a leadoff double to Gomez and a single to left field by Matt Duffy, placing runners at first and third.

Hembree came on and allowed the sac fly, the run charged to Porcello, who walked one and struck out four in 5⅓ innings. Porcello threw 89 pitches before leaving the game, which was about as much as manager Alex Cora wanted to get out of him in his first outing.

Cora and LeVangie want to keep the starters fresh throughout the year so there may be games where Cora will be accused of a quick hook. The moves may even backfire at times, but you’re just not going to see the Big Three pitching deep into games as often as Sale, for instance, did in 2017. That could mean a bullpen that might be overused, but Cora comes from the Houston program where pitchers’ innings were managed strictly.

Porcello worked hard on his sinker. In 2017, batters hit .305 with an .863 OPS against Porcello’s sinker, which led him to give up the most hits in baseball. If there was a silver lining, it was that Porcello pitched more than 200 innings. Since he made his major league debut in 2009, Porcello has made at least 27 starts every year. Only Max Scherzer and Jon Lester have matched that over the past nine seasons.

Every team values workhorses. They take the pressure off bullpens. But Porcello doesn’t need to think about that. What he needs to think about is righting his repertoire, showing the consistency he had with his sinker in 2016. As the only righthanded pitcher in Boston’s rotation once Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz come back, he’s an important person.

What’s been working?

LeVangie said a couple of things.

“First of all he’s never afraid to try something new,’’ LeVangie said. “He’s changed the way he enters a game. He’s getting the blood flow more before he comes in. He’s being an athlete. The other thing is that he’s pounding the zone low, but he’s doing it with more than his fastball. He’s doing it with his slider and changeup. By doing that the hitter just can’t sit on one thing down there. It’s really been fun to watch.’’

Porcello certainly didn’t want to be the one to end the good times that Sale and Price had created.

“Chris set the tone for the entire season and then David did what he did. I needed to continue that,’’ Porcello said. “The worst pitch I made was the one to Gomez for the double. I had a good rhythm going throughout. My command was good with all my pitches.’’

LeVangie said he hasn’t emphasized getting ahead in the count because “once I do that, it’ll work the other way. It’s happened that’s been the case but it’s because the guys have really pitched well, located well, changed eye levels, all of the things that enter into a good outing.’’

On the whole, Cora said he’s not surprised by the starts of the Big Three.

“It’s what we expected,’’ Cora said. “We know what these guys can do. We also feel the same way about the guys who will come after. We know our starting rotation can be something special.’’

Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickcafardo.