Soft openings.

Restaurants do it. Hotels do it. It’s a cheesy, 21st-century trick to kick off a business, secure in the knowledge that there will be no bad reviews. Companies invite only family and friends. A soft opening is designed to guarantee success and five-star ratings.

This is what the Red Sox will have Thursday afternoon (2:05) when David Price takes the ball in the 118th franchise home opener, against the built-to-lose Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. Led by rookie manager Alex Cora, and the same cast that won 93 games last season, the Red Sox come home with a five-game winning streak and sole possession of first place.

It is not the Sox’ fault that the almighty schedule gods put nine layups at the top of this season, but a 5-1 record might be a nugget of fool’s gold when assembled at the expense of the Rays and Miami Marlins. Truth be told, these Sox won’t get a fair measure of where they stand until they face the super-slugging, big-payroll Yankees next Tuesday through Thursday at Fenway. That’s when it might finally feel like baseball season around here.

Still, Thursday is the home opener so we must roll out the standard hardball axioms and remind you that Time begins on Opening Day and that the Red Sox’ home opener is a legit excuse to skip work and school throughout New England after a winter with too many snow days. It is expected to be sunny, windy, and in the low 40s at Fenway and the Sox will use the occasion to unveil more protective netting, the Jim Beam Dugout, the Sam (Adams) Deck, Sammy’s On 3rd (Sam Adams again), and the Coca-Cola Corner Refresh.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the Sox also added Cora in the dugout and J.D. Martinez, a $110 million, state-of-the-art slugger who hit 45 homers in only 119 games last season. Thursday will be Martinez’s first appearance at Fenway in a Red Sox uniform. We’re still waiting for his first homer. He went homerless in spring training and hit only .200 with one extra-base hit and seven strikeouts in the first six regular-season games.

The Sox did a lot of good things in their extended tour of Florida, but winning five straight vs. assorted fish was not as easy as it should have been. Boston won three one-run games at the Trop and had to play 13 innings to overcome Derek Jeter’s Marlins Tuesday night. They got sensational starting pitching (1.03 ERA), but struggled to score runs. The Sox batted .240, hit only four homers (one an inside-the-park job), and ran the bases just as recklessly as they did throughout the 2017 season. But they won. And they look like they should win a lot this year.

Your 2018 Red Sox are built to win NOW. The Sox own the highest payroll in baseball ($233 million) — a cast of home-grown core stars and moneyed outsiders that should be able to compete with the best teams in the game. MLB in 2018 features a hardball caste system of haves and have-nots. Boston lives in the top tier along with the Yankees, Astros, Indians, Nationals, Cubs, and Dodgers. These teams are likely to feast on the steerage clubs (Rays, Marlins, Reds, A’s, Padres, and Tigers, among others) that went into this season having already quit.

With three more games against the Rays on tap, there’s a good chance the Red Sox could be 8-1 when they play the Yankees at Fenway next week. That will be the first real test of 2018.

There’s a popular notion that the Red Sox have been perennial contenders in recent years, but it’s a phony narrative. For all their pomp and payroll, the Red Sox have won a postseason series in only one of the last nine seasons. Astute fans in our city of champions are not likely to buy into the 2018 Bostons until they win a playoff series, which they have not done since the magical World Series ride of 2013.

Cora, the popular new manager, was at Fenway when the 2017 Boston baseball season ended on a gloomy Monday afternoon last October. He was the bench coach of the Astros, who eliminated the Red Sox in four games. In the moments after the ’17 Sox season ended — while John Farrell was getting asked about job security and sorry Sox stars cleaned out their lockers — Cora was spraying champagne in the visitors’ clubhouse with the soon-to-be world champions.

It seems that everyone is rooting for the 42-year-old Puerto Rican baseball lifer. Smart, smooth, and easy with the carnivorous media, Cora is also the first non-white manager of the local nine, which is no small distinction in a spring in which Sox owner John Henry has proposed changing the street name (Yawkey Way) in front of ancient Fenway because he is “haunted’’ by the alleged racist legacy of Thomas A. Yawkey.

It’s fitting that Price will be on the bump in this first Fenway game. Price hasn’t started a game at home since last July and he spent all of 2017 growling in the doghouse of Red Sox Nation. He returns this week as a fastball-throwing metaphor for the 2018 Towne Team. Just like these Red Sox, Price makes barrels of money, comes up short in the playoffs, and has not been embraced by Boston sports fans.

Play ball.

And bring on the real games next week.

The Yankees are coming.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.