Red Sox Road Trip No. 1: From Arlington to Baltimore To Start the Season!

Opening Day 2025: Texas Rangers - March 27-30
Globe Life Field - Capacity 40,300
2024 Attendance: 2,651,553 (Averaged 32,735, fifth out of 15 AL parks and 12th overall)

The Red Sox last journeyed to Arlington in August of 2024, taking two of three from the Rangers. Boston averaged more than seven runs a game while bombing seven home runs in the summer heat. We'll find out whether springtime in Texas has the same impact. Since 2021, the Red Sox have made four road trips to Arlington and have come away at a near stalemate, with six victories and seven defeats.

Texas exists as an outlier in the baseball universe. Even Moon Baseball Road Trips doesn’t know what to do with it. A trip to a Rangers game gets lumped in with a “heartland” road trip. The retractable roof at the new ballpark offers 71-degree days even when the outdoors is boiling in Arlington, but this shouldn't be a factor at the end of March. Globe Life Field opened to empty seats in 2020 thanks to the Covid pandemic. The seats didn’t necessarily fill up for mediocre baseball in 2022 either, but a World Series championship can do wonders for the attendance figures. After a step back in 2024, the Rangers hope to recapture attention in 2025. The trend towards “entertainment district” stadium usage continues here, as teams seek to maximize fan spending for blocks in all directions. While in the entertainment district, you can go to Six Flags, a water park, AT&T Stadium, and a mall. What you can’t find is a downtown vibe or accessible public transit. The Dallas metro area has the usual big-city highlights, along with a JFK memorial, the iconic Reunion Tower, and other professional teams like the Stars and Mavs, who each have home games during this series.

It's 1,785 miles from Boston to Globe Life Field, so if you want to walk to the season opener, you should probably leave the house right around now. From Arlington, the Red Sox will travel 1,386 miles back the way they came, arriving in Baltimore to play at the stadium that is, just barely, still named Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Baltimore Orioles - March 31-April 3 (Off Day April 1)
Oriole Park at Camden Yards - Capacity 44,970
2024 Attendance: 2,281,129 (Averaged 28,514, eighth out of 15 AL parks and 19th overall)

Boston didn't love or hate their trips to Oriole Park in 2024, winning three and losing four to their division rivals. When the Red Sox found a way to score more than three runs in a game, they won. Unfortunately, runs proved hard to come by most of the time. The trip to Baltimore is one of the most familiar for Boston fans, as the Red Sox have played 266 games at OPACY. Boston has come away with 157 wins against only 109 losses, so players and fans alike can look forward to it.

Both teams should start the series with the back half of the rotations, as they'll have four games under their belt. Chilly conditions will most likely greet Boston in this series, so expect a pitching duel regardless of how the rotation actually shakes out.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards will forever be tied with Ken Griffey Jr. in my mind. The connection has nothing to do with Griffey's legendary blast in the 1993 Home Run Derby — still the only home run ever to hit the warehouse in right field — it's due to the fact that the Super Nintendo game Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball was the first place I saw the ballpark. Built in 1992, Camden Yards changed aesthetic templates for Major League ballparks. The warehouse frames a beautiful backdrop for baseball and for batters' dreams. The seats are designed for viewing baseball, but the third-base line is the way to go. Legends Park holds statues of Orioles greats, the walkways bustle with food and fun, and the city itself carries a history of the birthplace of baseball immortality, Babe Ruth.

The Inner Harbor and National Aquarium are tourist destinations that boast ships straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean and over 17,000 animals. Locals have been pursuing a Loch Ness-type creature named “Chessie” since the ’30s.  My friends in the area don’t describe Baltimore as a vacation hotspot, but it sounds like a great four days to me! Whether or not snow will be covering the ground can impact much of the city's exploration potential as well.

After traveling over 3,000 miles on this opening road trip, the Red Sox will only have to travel 402 miles to Fenway Park for the home opener the next day, April 4, against the Cardinals. How do you think the Sox will be faring in the standings by the time it arrives? Are you planning on making the trip to either game or have any advice from prior trips to Globe Life Field or Oriole Park? Let's get talking Sox fans!