Despite loss, Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman were thrilled about atmosphere Friday night at Fenway Park

BOSTON — In looking back at the shortened 2020 season and all that it entailed, Aaron Boone has said he actually was able to adapt to one aspect of it — no fans in the stands — fairly quickly.

With one or two notable exceptions.

"First time we played the Red Sox is when I really noticed it," he said early in spring training. "Because, honestly, I noticed it less in other situations."

Boone added: "Like for me, it was very easy to get kind of locked in at 7 [p.m.], it's game time, and the competitiveness of the game worked, it was effective. But there were certain times — the Red Sox series really stands out to me [and] a little bit the Mets as well — where there's just that normal extra buzz and angst and intensity in a regular-season setting.

"So more for me, it was just different times of the occasions when you do look up and take something in that wasn't there. But I would say the first time we played the Red Sox was the first time it really hit me hard."

That was the reason that Boone, even after a tough 5-3 loss to the Red Sox on Friday night, lit up a bit when asked about a "first" element of the night: a sellout crowd of 36,869 at Fenway Park, the venerable ballpark’s first sellout since September 2019. (Yankee Stadium reopened at full capacity the previous Friday night against Oakland.)

"It was awesome," Boone said Friday night, practically beaming. "It really was cool to be back in this environment."

When the Yankees play the Red Sox — whether at the Stadium or at Fenway Park — it's an environment that typically resembles a postseason game. And it was an environment sorely missed in 2020.

"Yankees-Red Sox, that speaks for itself, but coming here last year with no fans . . . It was just different than Yankees-Red Sox," Boone said Friday. "And today, again, felt really big."

Part of that had to do with a stirring pregame ceremony honoring longtime Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who announced his retirement in February. But the building would have crackled Friday regardless.

"There was definitely a vibe in the ballpark," Boone said. "That was good to be a part of and good to see."

The Red Sox secured Friday's victory when DJ LeMahieu hit into a 6-4-3 double play, and the crowd, which had not dissipated much by game’s end, let out one last roar.

"The fact we ended up with a 6-4-3 double play, it was meant to be," Red Sox manager Alex Cora told Boston reporters afterward.

Cora used "amazing" and "cool" in describing the night.

"The fact that everybody was here early, the fans, that’s something different but obviously for the right reason," Cora said, referencing the Pedroia ceremony. "I have to give it to the fans; for them to show up and bring the energy from the get-go with Pedey [Pedroia] and then keep it all the way through the end . . . I’ve been saying, man, Friday nights at Fenway are cool. They’re pretty cool, and it was another great atmosphere."

Like Boone, Red Sox rightfielder Hunter Renfroe, who cut down Gio Urshela at the plate as the potential tying run in the fourth, mentioned how different these rivalry games felt in 2020, when he was with the Rays.

"Obviously, coming from last year and not having fans at all to having a packed house tonight against the Yankees, it was pretty special," he said. "People will remember that for a long time."

Including those on the losing end.

"It was awesome, it was fantastic," said Brian Cashman, the Yankees' general manager since 1998, referring to Friday's atmosphere. "To see this place rocking . . . from first pitch, all the way through until the end, 100% capacity, people enjoying it. That was a Yankees-Red Sox game at Fenway Park like we used to remember."