Events

Red Sox to take on Twins in Fenway opener

Although Major League Baseball's lockout delayed the festivities by a couple of weeks, baseball is coming back to Boston just in time for Marathon Monday.

Kiké Hernández delivered the sacrifice fly that scored the series-clinching run against the Rays in last year's divisional playoff. Barry Chin/Globe Staff

By Dave D'Onofrio

2 minutes to read

Last time Red Sox fans filed out of Fenway Park, they did so with a feeling of frustration. Their team had held a 2-1 lead in the American League Championship Series, but, on what became the final two nights of Boston’s 2021 baseball season, the Sox blew an eighth-inning lead in Game 4, then couldn’t generate anything offensively in Game 5. The Astros clinched the pennant in Houston a couple nights later.

But, as always, hope begins anew with opening day. And based on what happened throughout the full length of last season, Red Sox fans should have plenty of hope when Fenway opens for its 111th season.

Originally, Boston’s home opener was set for March 31 against Tampa Bay, but Major League Baseball’s lockout of the players canceled the first two series of the season. Those games were scattered onto common off-days later in the season.

As it is now, the Red Sox are set to open the season at Yankee Stadium on April 7, then go to Detroit for a three-game meeting, before opening the home slate against the Twins on April 15. Originally scheduled as a night game, the start time has been shifted to the traditional 2:05 afternoon slot on a Friday that also happens to coincide with One Boston Day, as well as the 75th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier. Additionally, it aligns with the start of Patriots’ Day weekend.

Tickets for the newly minted home opener are on sale through the Red Sox website as of 10 a.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

he Red Sox should be champing at the bit to try and continue what they built on the road back to the playoffs last season. A key factor in Alex Cora’s team climbing back to contention was the way it successfully returned Fenway to its status as a real home-field advantage, with the Sox going 49-32 there during the regular season, then winning their first four home games of the postseason. That playoff run started with a wild-card win over the Yankees, throughout which America’s Most Beloved Ballpark was rocking and roaring like it hadn’t in some time.

What followed shortly thereafter were a couple more electric events against the Rays – who’d notched 100 wins a year ago, and easily won the AL East, before the Sox dispatched them from the divisional round in just four games and spoiled Tampa’s attempt to get back to a second straight World Series.

It didn’t go as well against Houston, which will come to Boston in mid-May if labor peace allows, although maybe by then Sox fans will be past the frustrations of how last October ended. And hopefully, too, of the delayed fashion in which this April began.