On Thursday, the Boston Red Sox begin anew at last.

Yet for various reasons the ‘When’ and ‘Where’ are somewhat different this year.

Internally, the biggest change to the Sox schedule is the earlier games. Excluding Fridays, all weekday home games in April, May, and September will start at 6:45, rather than the traditional 7:10 p.m.

Externally, their road trips will take them to some unfamiliar places. The Athletics have officially left Oakland, and are constructing a new ballpark in Las Vegas. In the meantime, they’re slated to spend the next three seasons sharing Sutter Health Park with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate River Cats in Sacramento, Calif.

The Rays are borrowing Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ spring training home in Tampa, because Hurricane Milton destroyed the Tropicana Field roof last fall.

Two major league ballparks have new names. Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, is now simply Rate Field, and Houston’s Minute Maid Park is now Daikin Park.

There’s also a new update to the balanced schedule format the league introduced two years ago, which reduced divisional play in order to allow for each club to face all 29 others. This year, teams are reallocating two games from non-division league opponents so that MLB’s “prime interleague rivals ” – such as the Mets and Yankees, White Sox and Cubs, and Angels and Dodgers – can play two three-game series instead of two two-game series. May 16-18 will be “Rivalry Weekend,” with the aforementioned matchups, as well as regional rivalries such as the Pirates visiting Phillies and Astros at Rangers. The A’s will return to the Bay Area to play the Giants; and the Braves, who left Boston for Milwaukee in 1953, will be back in Beantown.

Here’s everything else you need to know about the 2025 Red Sox schedule:

Start me up

After two exhibition games against the Sultanese de Monterrey in Mexico on March 24 and 25, the Red Sox open the 2025 regular season with a six-game road trip to Texas (March 27-30) and Baltimore (March 31-April 3). It will be the fifth Opening Day meeting between the Red Sox and Rangers, who started the 2011, ‘06, and ‘96 seasons together, as well as 1965, when the Rangers were still the third iteration of the Washington Senators. Their 1972 relocation to Texas was spearheaded by none other than Alex Bregman’s grandfather.

Other than the Rays and Rockies, all teams will open the season on March 27.

Home, sweet home

The April 4 home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals checks off multiple boxes: the first Fenway Friday and first interleague series of the year.

For the second year in a row, the Red Sox home opener promises to bring the emotion. The ‘24 pregame ceremonies honored the 2004 champions for the 20th anniversary, a bittersweet occasion after the passings of knuckleballer Tim Wakefield the previous October and longtime executive Larry Lucchino during the first week of the season.

There will be a similar poignancy this year for the 50th anniversary of the ‘75 pennant team, which will be incomplete without Luis Tiant, who passed away last October. The Red Sox will put a tribute to Tiant on the Green Monster for the duration of the season, as they did for Wakefield and Lucchino last year.

Marathon, not a sprint

A 162-game schedule is strenuous any way you slice it, but there’s more consistency for Boston this year. Between May 15 and Aug. 14 they have every Thursday off except May 22 (home vs. BAL) and July 10 (home vs. Rays). It’s not unlike the minor leagues, where there’s a scheduled off-day every six days.

The Red Sox have their first day off on April 1, in between Games 1 and 2 in Baltimore, then play 15 consecutive days without a break. Only one other stretch comes close, 14 games in a row between Aug. 21-Sept. 3.

Their longest road trips of the season is June 13-25, when they play three games apiece in Seattle, San Francisco, and Anaheim.

However, August will again be a big test for the club. Within the first two weeks they’ll host the Astros and Royals, then hit the road to play the Padres and Astros. The Orioles and Yankees take up the bulk of the second half of the month.

After one final west-coast trip to the Diamondbacks and A’s in early September, they’ll remain on Eastern Standard Time from Sept. 12 until the end of the regular season.

Beastly East

The Red Sox will see a lot of their American League East rivals early in the season, beginning with three games in Baltimore (March 31-April 3) on their opening road trip, hosting the Blue Jays for four (April 7-10) during their first homestand, and three games in Tampa during their second road trip (April 14-16).

As was the case last year, the Red Sox and Yankees don’t meet until June. The first rivalry series is in the Bronx June 6-8, and the Yankees come to town the following weekend (June 13-15). Because nothing says ‘Father’s Day’ like chanting “Who’s your daddy?” to Yankees fans.

Orioles: 3/31-4/3 (Away), 5/22-25 (Home), 8/18-19 (H), 8/25-28 (A)

Blue Jays: 4/7-10 (H), 4/29-5/1 (A), 6/27-29 (H), 9/23-25 (A)

Rays: 4/14-16 (A), 6/9-11 (H), 7/10-13 (H), 9/19-21 (A)

Yankees: 6/6-8 (3A), 6/13-15 (3H), 8/21-24 (4A), 9/12-14 (3H)

Big names and old friends in town

The balanced schedule alternates annually, so the same NL teams that came to Fenway in 2023 will return this year. Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers are back in Boston July 25-27.

Other superstar visits include Chris Sale and the Braves (May 16-18), Juan Soto and the New York Mets (May 19-21), Mike Trout and the Angels (June 2-4), and Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals (Aug. 4-6).

Key MLB regular-season dates

On April 21, the Red Sox play their annual 11:10 a.m. Marathon Monday/Patriots Day game. It overlaps with Jackie Robinson Day, when the entire league wears No. 42.

Other league-wide events include Lou Gehrig Day on June 2 and Roberto Clemente Day on Sept. 15. All players wear No. 4 and No. 21 patches on their jerseys for those respective games.

The Red Sox are spending July 4 opening up a road series with the Washington Nationals.

The All-Star break is July 14-17, with Atlanta hosting this year’s midsummer events. The Home Run Derby on the first day, and the All-Star Game itself on the 15th. (The Futures Game takes place the Saturday prior, July 12.)

The trade deadline is July 31.

The regular season ends Sunday, Sept. 28. For the Red Sox, it’s a final home series with the Detroit Tigers.