Given a slate of 20 games that could be considered extremely favorable, the Red Sox left town in the wee hours of Monday morning about to begin a stretch that may not be so kind. Overall, it was a rather solid 13-7 run in which Boston lost just a half-game on its lead in the American League East. However, the run featured 14 games at home, 10 against last-place teams and only three (this past weekend's series against the New York Yankees) against an opponent that had a winning record entering Monday.
Now, the tables get turned.
In all, 14 of the next 17 games will be away from Fenway Park. The three that are played at home involve a day-night doubleheader against Tampa Bay, followed by a day game the next afternoon. That will force Boston to play its only three home games in nearly three weeks of action all within a 27-hour span (give or take) and in advance of four straight in Kansas City and four straight in Texas, two locales that have seen game-time temperatures well over 100 degrees of late.
While there are a few patsies on the upcoming slate (Minnesota and Seattle start it off and the Royals are on the back end), they are all on the road and in places that have been unkind to good Red Sox teams in the past. Boston is 11-21 at the Twins since 2002 (1-2 at Target Field), 21-28 at Seattle since 2001, 9-10 at Kansas City since 2005 and 2-10 at Texas since 2009.
There are no days off from the beginning of that doubleheader until just before the Yankees return to Fenway on Aug. 30, giving the team 14 games in 13 days, eight of them in a cauldron. Texas comes in after the Yankees leave, and then the Sox have seven more on the road against winning teams, Toronto and Tampa Bay. Including the doubleheader, there are 27 games in 27 days through Sept. 11.
To take it even further, eight of the next 12 opponents have winning records as of Monday. Only four of the previous 13 opponents own marks which currently sit on the plus side of .500.
It's very possible that the Red Sox will do just as well in this road-heavy spell as it did in the just completed home-heavy stint that saw them go 13-7. If they do, it may mean even more, for the difficulty level is about to go up.
