Alex Cora, a star manager who could become a star free agent when this season is over, told me the other day that he had started running again, partnering with a friend who had run the Boston Marathon.

“I needed to get in shape to begin with,” the Red Sox manager said, “and decided to continue for all the benefits that come with it.”

Then he said: “Now our team is doing what I’m doing.”

His team is running this season, like no Red Sox team you can remember. It starts with a streak of light named Jarren Duran and runs all the way through Cora’s batting order down to Ceddanne Rafaela, another streak of light, not just on the bases but in the field. And there is David Hamilton, who wasn’t supposed to be Boston’s shortstop but sure is now, a player who came out of this week with more stolen bases than any rookie in the game.

There are National League teams ahead of the Red Sox in stolen bases, starting with the Reds, who beat Boston, 5-2, on Friday night. But the Red Sox keep running, and lead the AL with 76 steals. And they keep scoring more because of the running. There is a chance that they could get to 50 stolen bases or more in the month of June. There was a stretch where they stole 27 bases in a dozen games. For the season, Duran had 19 steals and Hamilton had 20 steals though Friday night.

The Red Sox don’t just steal bases. They take extra bases, and challenge other teams on the bases and a team whose brand has so often been home runs because they play half their games in Fenway Park, has now turned its season around over the past couple of weeks. Team speed has had so much to do with it, as the Red Sox continue to be one of the surprise teams in baseball this season, one with a legitimate shot at being a Wild Card team.

“The most important thing is that my team is happy,” Cora said.

It shows. The Red Sox have gotten knocked down plenty, starting in Spring Training when they lost Lucas Giolito, who was supposed to be one of their starting pitchers, to a right elbow injury. Then they lost another starting pitcher to a right elbow injury in Garrett Whitlock. Trevor Story, who was supposed to be their starting shortstop, was lost early for the season with a left shoulder injury, and Triston Casas, the first baseman who was supposed to supply power for them, has been gone for a while with a rib cage injury. Wilyer Abreu, the young outfielder who was having such a fine season before being sidelined with a right ankle injury, is about to come off the injured list.

But through Friday, Boston was 11-7 for the month of June, and it had just completed a stretch during which it won two of three games from the Phillies and two of three games from the Yankees -- against whom they stole nine bases last Sunday night -- and swept the Blue Jays in a three-game set in Toronto.

So much of the personality of the team, and the recent success, starts with Duran, who has been even more important to his team as it moves up on the halfway point of the season than the team’s star, Rafael Devers.

“[Duran] is an All-Star,” Cora said simply.

Duran is every bit of that. He came into the weekend fifth in extra-base hits in baseball, only behind Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt Jr. Then he promptly hit another home run, his seventh of the year, to go with the 10 triples he has, more than about half the teams in the sport. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only two Red Sox players in history who finished a season as the outright leader in triples were Jim Rice in 1978 and Johnny Damon in 2002. Boston is tied with Detroit for the MLB lead with 21 triples.

The Red Sox can still hit home runs, too. Tyler O'Neill had 15 after Friday night’s games and Devers had 14. As a team they were a respectable 11th in home runs with 83. But the two teams ahead of them in the AL East, the Orioles and the Yankees, had hit 123 and 113 respectively. The Red Sox can’t power up with them. So they use their speed instead.

Maybe this wasn’t the Red Sox team that Cora envisioned when they left Fort Myers, Fla., at the end of March, but it is the team they have become, out of last place in the East, ahead of the Blue Jays and Rays, right there behind the Royals and Twins for the third Wild Card spot in the American League. In a season when expectations weren’t all that high for the Red Sox to go anywhere, they just keep going for now. And going.

It is why Duran -- batting .280 through Friday night, 51 runs scored -- has been their MVP to this point in the season, such a dynamic force because of the pressure he puts on the other team with his speed and aggressiveness. Even when Duran just takes a walk, Red Sox fans are now conditioned to him taking second base.

It has all been fun to watch. The manager is running again. His team is running. You know how everybody says the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint? The Red Sox are sprinting.