Red Sox Schedule For 2013 Released

The 2013 schedule for the Boston Red Sox has been released, and it looks a might bit better than 2012's gauntlet.

The Sox will start the year with four straight sets against each of the A.L. East teams, opening their season in New York against the Yankees on April 1st and welcoming the Orioles to Boston on April 8th to open Fenway.

The second half of April should be a relatively soft period, at least based on how teams look this season. Series against Cleveland, Kansas City, and Houston will hopefully help the team to settle in after the initial divisional gauntlet.

The difficult parts of the year seem like they will be very concentrated. The Sox won't face the Yankees again until the beginning of June, but then they've got to deal with New York, Texas, Los Angeles, Tampa, and Baltimore, Tampa again, and then Detroit--an absolutely brutal three weeks right in the middle of the year.

Despite having to take on the NL West, the Sox will make only two trips to the other coast. They'll play 10 against the West Coast teams from July 5 to 14, heading into the All-Star break, and then hit California again for six games against the Giants and the Artists Formerly Known As The Red Sox the Dodgers.

So long as the Sox can keep it close in the first five months, they'll have their chance to win--or lose--the division in September as the year winds down to a crazy finish starting on September 5: four in New York, three in Tampa, three more against the Yankees, and then six against Baltimore and Toronto. Oddly enough, the year will end with a pair of two-game road series against Colorado (this is the first year of even leagues and year-long interleague play) and Baltimore.

It seems like kind of a roller coaster ride with plenty of lulls and periods of intense competition, but after this season that kind of seems like a gimme.

The entire 2013 schedule can be found on the Red Sox' official team site.