The Red Sox, who are now practicing at Fenway Park, announced Friday they will play two exhibition games at home against Toronto. Elise Amendola/Associated Press
The Red Sox will host the Blue Jays for a pair of exhibition games at Fenway Park on July 21 and 22, the team announced Friday.
Both games are scheduled for 7:30 p.m and will air on NESN.
Boston was hoping to schedule one or two exhibition games before Opening Day on July 24 at home against the Orioles. Teams around baseball are allowed to schedule up to three preseason exhibition games before Opening Day and may do so at their own discretion.
Baltimore made sense as a potential opponent for exhibition games before the season-opening series, but the Orioles had already scheduled games against the Phillies (July 19) and Nationals (July 20 and 21). It appears the O’s will travel to Boston on either July 22 or 23 before beginning the three-game opening series.
Toronto opens its season on July 24 against the Rays in Florida. The Red Sox and Blue Jays will play each other 10 times during the regular season, beginning with a three-game set at Fenway Park from Aug. 7-9.
Because the schedule is designed to limit travel and is unbalanced between division rivals, the Red Sox will host seven of the 10 games against Toronto this year.
Red Sox Manager Ron Roenicke was surprised that teams did not have an equal amount of home and road games against each other but thought the schedule was fair.
“I thought there would be equal both ways. I didn’t know exactly how they were going to do it. I still think as long as you’re playing the same about of home games and road games, I think that’s fair,” Roenicke said. “To try to work out a schedule that’s perfect for everyone, it just doesn’t happen. I didn’t look at the schedule and say, ‘Wow, it’s not fair to us.’ I didn’t look at it that way. We’ll do the best we can and try to get off to a good start.”
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