Nats-Mets, Tigers-Indians start earliest opening day
NEW YORK (AP) — The World Series champion Washington Nationals will be at the New York Mets, and Detroit will play at Cleveland on March 26 in the first two games of Major League Baseball’s earliest opening day other than international games.
Washington’s game is part of a nationally televised tripleheader on ESPN and will be followed by San Francisco at the Los Angeles Dodgers at 4:10 p.m. EDT and the Los Angeles Angels at AL champion Houston at 7:10 p.m.
Other AL opening-day games (all times EDT) are: Kansas City at the Chicago White Sox (2:10 p.m.), New York Yankees at Baltimore (3:05 p.m.), Boston at Toronto (3:37 p.m.), Minnesota at Oakland (4:07 p.m.) and Texas at Seattle (4:10 p.m.).
NL openers include the Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee (2:10 p.m,), St. Louis at Cincinnati (4:10 p.m.), Philadelphia at Miami (4:10 p.m.), Colorado at San Diego (4:10 p.m.) and Atlanta at Arizona (10:10 p.m.). The one interleague matchup has Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay (4:10 p.m.).
All 30 teams could play on opening day for the first time since 1968. A full slate was scheduled in 2018 but two games were postponed because of bad weather. The 2020 regular season is to end Sept. 27, putting the World Series on track for Oct. 20-28.
Globe Life Field, the new home of the Texas Rangers, opens March 31 with a game against the Angels at 4:05 p.m. This is the first new ballpark since the Atlanta Braves‘ SunTrust Park opened in 2017. Globe Life will be the seventh big league stadium with a retractable roof after those in Toronto, Phoenix, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee and Miami. Tampa Bay has a fixed roof.
The Angels host the Dodgers on July 10-11 heading into the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on July 14 — giving both teams a rare Sunday off on July 12.
San Diego plays Arizona in a two-game series on April 18-19 in the first regular-season games in Mexico City, and Miami hosts the Mets in a three-game series at San Juan, Puerto Rico, from April 28-30. The Cubs and Cardinals will play two games in London , on June 13 at 1:10 p.m. and the following day at a time to be determined.
The Yankees and White Sox play Aug. 13 at a ballpark being constructed next to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, and Boston meets Baltimore on Aug. 23 in the Little League Classic at Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
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