Team Weather Playbook

Boston Red Sox Weather Playbook: Fenway, Coastal Air, and Road Trips

By Kevin Roth, sports meteorologist. How weather affects the Boston Red Sox at home and on the road.

Home advantage

Fenway plays in cool coastal air for the first six weeks of the season and again from mid-September onward. Sea breeze from the east and southeast is common on afternoon games and reverses wind direction between first pitch and the fifth inning. The Green Monster in left field turns short-porch fly balls into wall singles and back-of-the-park doubles, which changes how wind-out-to-left plays compared to any other park in the majors.

Division road environments

The AL East includes the Trop dome and Yankee Stadium's short right-field porch, which are stable environments the Red Sox face repeatedly. Toronto's retractable roof at Rogers Centre removes weather from Toronto series most of the year. Camden Yards in Baltimore plays warm humid in July and August, closer to the classic hot-weather setup than Fenway ever gets.

For DFS and bettors

Wind direction relative to the Monster is the single largest leverage point on Red Sox home totals. Cold northeast wind and low dew points in April can knock 1.5 runs off a total that sits at a season-average number. Warm southwest wind in July does the opposite.