CHART: The Red Sox Bandwagon Is Starting To Get Crowded Again

The Red Sox now have a 9.5 game lead in the A.L. East and will almost certainly be heading back to the playoffs for the first time since 2009. As a result, attendance for Red Sox games on the road this season has jumped nearly six percent.

Road attendance for Red Sox games, an indication of the team's popularity around the country, jumped in 2004 and peaked in 2007 (38,642 per game). The Red Sox won the World Series in both of those seasons. Road attendance remained strong in 2008, but quickly fell in 2009 and continued to shrink the next three seasons.

Last year's road attendance was back to the levels seen prior to the Red Sox 2004 World Series run. This year's attendance (32,848) on the road is up for the first time in six years, but still well below 2004-08 levels. Here is the year-by-year look at road attendance with the Yankees for comparison...