Nobody wants it to end like it did last season.

“No, and that’s fresh in everybody’s mind,’’ said Hanley Ramirez as he sat on the dugout steps at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon. “But we can’t make this any bigger than it is. We have to put together good at-bats, swing at strikes, all the basic things we do. We have to get back to playing good in our ballpark.’’

That was the prevailing thought. That was the motivation. These Red Sox players don’t want to be clumped with 2016, when the Cleveland Indians swept them. They want no part of that. Whether that motivation is good enough to beat an absolutely red-hot Astros team remains to be seen.

“This is a proud group of players,’’ Xander Bogaerts said. “We’re a better team than what we’ve shown and we all know that in here. We have to win tomorrow and if we do that will change this so much. We just haven’t been ourselves. Everybody wants it. Everybody wants to win.’’

All the good things they can do they failed to do in Houston.

They can run better than the Astros. They can exploit Brian McCann behind the plate.

They have a better defense than the Astros, but it’s hard to see that shine when they fall behind big.

Bogaerts, the leadoff hitter, talks about getting on base and making something happen. He talks about generating some early run production. The Red Sox are upset by the fact they haven’t been able to generate early run support for their pitchers. He feels if the Sox could score first it would relax the pitching staff and just create a better opportunity.

Before the series started, MLB researcher Nate Purinton figured that in the last five postseasons the team that scored first had won 71 percent of the time. It was a bigger factor than home-field advantage, where the home team won 53 percent of the time.

The Red Sox are looking to be a part of that first-strike offense.

They want to bounce back and be the resilient team that has comeback wins and excelled in extra-inning games.

“I think we have had that type of response to a number of different situations this year,’’ said manager John Farrell. “We have talked openly about the resilience. We know perfectly well where we are in this series. I think we are all looking forward to getting on the field here in front of our home fans at Fenway.’’

There’s no doubt that other than the offense needing to get going, the pitching has to be better. Boston’s last five playoff starters are 1-5 with an 8.53 ERA. They include John Lackey on Oct. 30, 2013 (6⅔ innings, 9 hits, 1 run, a 6-1 win over the Cardinals); Rick Porcello on Oct. 6, 2016 (4⅓ innings, 6 hits, 5 runs in a 5-4 loss to the Indians); David Price (Oct. 7, 2016, 3⅓, 6 hits, 5 runs, in a 6-0 loss to Cleveland); Clay Buchholz (Oct. 10, 2016, 4 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs, in a 4-3 loss to Cleveland); Chris Sale (Oct. 5, 2017, 5 innings, 9 hits, 7 runs, in an 8-2 loss to the Astros); and Drew Pomeranz (Oct. 6, 2017, 2 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, in an 8-2 loss to the Astros).

High on the Sox’ to-do list is to get off to a good start.

In the first eight postseason games around baseball, hitters are batting .329 in the first inning. Teams have hit 26 homers in the first eight games. The Red Sox have hit zero homers and have not scored any runs in the first inning. Game 3 starter Doug Fister has had problems in the first inning, where he has a 9.00 ERA, allowing 15 runs in 15 innings, including three homers.

“It is about setting the tone right from the start and that falls in Doug’s hands tomorrow,’’ Farrell said. “To put a zero up in the first inning and allow us to capture on the energy here and then build some of our own energy. We know getting on the board first is key to that, but we know that we have got to go out and execute. When we didn’t, they have made us pay. But we have seen Doug Fister be able to take a very good lineup and neutralize it in a few starts already this season and we’re turning to him tomorrow to lead the way.’’

Fister wasn’t there last year so he doesn’t know the embarrassment this team suffered in the sweep by Cleveland. Before this series players talked about how last season was their first playoff experience and how this year they’d be able to handle it better.

“I just think we’re in a better position to handle this than we were last year,’’ Bogaerts said. “It’s just the feeling I get from our guys. We know things didn’t work out for us last year. No excuses for that, but I’m not sure most of us handled that well. I think now we’re able to handle it and know what we have to do and how to approach it. All of us want this to work out. If we win it’s going to change everything.’’

And if they don’t?

Oh my.

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