Key changes to look for on the Boston Red Sox 2023 schedule

Red Sox 2023 schedule is unlike any in franchise history

On Wednesday, the Boston Red Sox and the rest of Major League Baseball released their 2023 schedules.

Typically, MLB schedule reveals aren’t nearly as thrilling as say, an NFL or NBA schedule (though the Philadelphia Phillies did something really cute). With 162 games, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what will be important when teams are in the throes of the current campaign.

Still, it’s exciting to look ahead, especially when the ongoing season is so unpalatable. And for the first time in MLB history, the schedules are actually quite different. Divisional play has been reduced in order to create space in the schedule for each team to play one another at least once.

The Sox will host several intriguing, rarely-seen opponents at Fenway next year, including the Miami Marlins, New York Mets, and Los Angeles Dodgers. They’ll play in two beautiful ballparks when they go to San Diego in May and San Francisco in July. Division rivalry series will be fewer and farther between; while the Sox will open the season by hosting the Baltimore Orioles at home again, the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays don’t come to town until June, and won’t return until September. If the front office constructs a better roster this offseason, that four-game Yankees series in September might just take the Rivalry back to early aughts levels.

The only downside to this change is that between reinstating the Universal DH this year and the ongoing schedule changes, Inter-League play will lose much of its fanfare and become commonplace. Who can forget Rick Porcello’s clutch bases-clearing double in Washington DC in July 2018? And when the Sox went to Pittsburgh earlier this month, it was their first series at the stunning PNC Park since 2014. Inter-League play used to be a special occasion; going forward, it will be the norm.