FORT MYERS, Fla. – Given the late-innings drama of Game 6 of last year’s World Series, in which the Rangers were twice within one excruciating strike of a championship as the game drifted into extra innings, it was a play that was easy to overlook.

It was, after all, only the second inning when Colby Lewis stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and nobody out and the Cardinals ahead of the Rangers, 2-1.

Twice before that year, both on June 17 in a contest against the Braves, Lewis had stepped to the plate in obvious bunt situations with runners on first and second. Both times, he had failed to execute a sacrifice, the result being forceouts of the lead runner at third base in both instances.

Back to the World Series, on a night that will live in infamy in Rangers lore: Everyone in the ballpark — including everyone in a Cardinals uniform — knew that Lewis was up to bunt, and bunt he did. He bunted the first pitch foul. On the next play, David Freese charged from third to field it more or less in the batter’s box; he fired to third, where shortstop Rafael Furcal was covering for a force play, and Furcal fired across the diamond to nab Lewis at first, where second baseman Nick Punto was covering.

On the next play, Ian Kinsler hit a game-tying, two-out double to knock in the runner on second, but to Bobby Valentine, the thought was obvious: It should have been two runs. Had Lewis offered even the threat of swinging away upon seeing that Freese was standing at his feet, Freese would have had to back off while charging, and in all likelihood, the outcome of the play would not have been a double play. If two runners had been on base, the Rangers would have had another run on the board.

As the sixth game unfolded, the thought recurred in Valentine. The Rangers should have had another run. The Cardinals’ furious comeback would have brought them only within a run of the Rangers in the ninth inning; Texas would have been crowned the champion after an 8-7 victory.

“I felt the American League lost the world championship because they didn’t have a slash play,” Valentine recalled on Tuesday. “When there’s men on first and second in Game 6 and the Cardinals put the wheel play on and they were standing in the batter’s box and the bunt went foul, if that was a slash, they call off the wheel play, they move one guy over, it becomes second and third and the Rangers are the world champions.”

And so, even though he was an analyst at that time, the thought in the aftermath of that game was clear to Valentine. If he were a manager and putting together a spring training program for an American League team, he would have the pitchers work on the “slash” play — pulling back from the bunt and swinging away — in spring training. The detail might seem minute, but in Valentine’s mind, it was the difference between the Rangers winning and losing the World Series in 2011.

And so it was that on the first official workout of Red Sox spring training, pitchers made their way to an unfamiliar station while moving from field to field. After working on bunt plays, throwing to bases, PFPs and throwing bullpens, they adjourned to the batting cages to practice bunts and slash plays. It will be a sporadic undertaking in camp rather than a regular one, but the undertaking offers a reminder of Valentine’s sense that details can make the difference in titles.

“I think these guys want to be the world champions, so i just thought if they could work on a fundamental, a technique now of bunting and slashing, then in that time before interleague play where we get them to come out and practice, they can have already had a foundation of what they might be asked to do and then again, if it’s before the playoffs and they’re doing it again, they just build on that foundation,” said Valentine.

“Small ball is just baseball. Pitchers’ fundamentals is baseball. It should be part and parcel to the fabric of the game. Why should a kid and his father come to a game and see a pitcher throw a bunt down the left field line because he’s not proficient at fielding the bunt? … It’s as much a part of the game as hitting the home run. It’s got to be. It’s been there forever and it counts.”

More likely than not, a play such as the one in Game 6 would not make a difference in a single game of an American League team’s season. But Valentine evidently is uninterested in leaving the matter to chance. And so, as the Red Sox go through their first camp under their new manager, there was a small hint of the difference being borne by the new manager.