After a slow start this season, NESN's ratings for Red Sox telecasts are again approaching their usual unmatched heights in Major League Baseball.

According to Nielsen research, from June 4 to June 9, the Red Sox' average rating in Boston-area households was 9.2 with an 18 share, including an enormous 14.8 rating/24 share for Monday's opener of a three-game series with the Yankees. Ratings represent the percentage of all homes with televisions in a market watching a broadcast.

Even during NESN's early-season slump - local ratings through May 21 were down approximately 14 percent from a year ago, according a report in the Boston Business Journal - the Red Sox were still drawing the highest local ratings among all major league teams. According to Nielsen, the average rating for all 30 MLB teams through May 24 was 3.2, the same as last year. The Yankees had their best rating ever for April and May - 4.5 - on their version of NESN, the YES Network.

It's all a matter of context. A valley to NESN is a peak to essentially every other team. Still, the numbers were down; as recently as June 9, the average household rating this season was 8.92, which was 6.8 percent behind last year's pace.

There was much speculation about the reason; the absence of popular analyst Jerry Remy, who is recovering from the effects of cancer surgery, and the reduced star power and charisma of this post-Manny Ramírez team were cited. But it seems much simpler. For the first month and a half, the Sox were often competing with Bruins and/or Celtics playoff games. And two West Coast trips before May 17 didn't help.

"We were braced for it," said NESN vice president for programming Joel Feld. "We spent the first month, month and a half just staying on the radar screen with the Bruins and Celtics doing so well.

"Where the Bruins [whose games air on NESN] and the Celtics are concerned, we're always hoping for a long playoff run, but to some degree it did cause conflicts. But look at it this way: there were nights when we'd have a Bruins game and a Red Sox game, and end up with a 20 [combined rating].

"That's a good story, a good problem to have."