Finally the Sox are coming home to play again. No big deal, right? Just another home series.

The Sox — along with Toronto — have played the fewest home games in Major League Baseball this year. Here’s why this is a big deal, every team in MLB stinks on the road, with the exception of Anaheim, which is an MLB-best 31-18 away from The Big A. St. Louis is five-games over and there’s a handful of teams two games over. Nearly every other team is below .500 on the road. It’s almost NFL-like with the home field advantage this year.

The Red Sox have the biggest home field advantage in all of baseball, having gone 36-11 at Fenway, but as I stated, they’ve played the fewest home games, which makes the fact that they’re in first place this morning all the more impressive. Tampa has now lost seven straight road games, which has helped.

It’ll be a big test to that home field advantage over the next six games though. The red hot Yanks come to town for three and then even hotter Anaheim for another three. Thankfully dead-in-the-water Oakland follows, but the next six are huge.

It doesn’t seem possible, but the Sox have fewer than 60 games left to play, 59 in fact. Of those 59, 35 are at home and only 24 will be away. There’s a good chance they’ll be back in the postseason again. And if they are you can bet home field advantage will be a big reason.