Tampa Bay Rays Season Will Be Played Differently: Coronavirus

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Major League Baseball has released the 2020 regular season schedules for the Tampa Bay Rays, and baseball will be played differently this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Rays will host the Toronto Blue Jays for opening day on Friday, July 24, marking the 11th consecutive season the Rays will play at home to start the season, a Major League Baseball news release said. Due to ongoing safety concerns related to the coronavirus, games held at Tropicana Field will not be open to fans at this time.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman's communications director, Benjamin Kirby, told Patch that the mayor is open-minded on this. Kriseman has talked to the Rays about the pros and cons of allowing fans in the stadium in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kirby said that everyone would like to see the number of coronavirus cases decline. But the mayor is receptive to learning more about how best to keep fans safe.

According to Major League Baseball website, the Rays open the season with a five-game home stand against the Blue Jays (July 24-26) and Atlanta Braves (July 27-28). On their first road trip, the Rays travel to play the Braves (July 29-30) and Baltimore Orioles (July 31–August 2). They finish the season by hosting the Philadelphia Phillies for three games (September 25-27). For interleague play, the Rays will play six games against the Miami Marlins (three home, three road), four games each against the defending World Champion Washington Nationals (two home, two road) and Braves (two home, two road) and three games each against the New York Mets (all road) and Phillies (all home).

This will be the fifth time in 23 seasons the Rays have played the Blue Jays on opening day, following 2001 (won 8-1), 2005 (lost 5-2), 2014 (won 9-2) and 2016 (lost 5-3), and all of them have been played at home.

Major League Baseball designed the 2020 schedule to include 40 games within the division and 20 interleague games against the corresponding geographical division (American League East plays National League East). The Rays will play 10 games each against the Orioles (three home, seven road), Boston Red Sox (six home, four road), New York Yankees (four home, six road) and Blue Jays (seven home, three road). As a result, all 60 Rays games will be played in the Eastern time zone. On Friday, MLB officially announced the cancellation of the 2020 All-Star Game, originally scheduled to be played at Dodger Stadium on July 14.

Major League Baseball will officially open the season on July 23 with two games scheduled that night. The Nationals will host the Yankees at 7:08 p.m., and the Los Angeles Dodgers will host the San Francisco Giants at 10:08 p.m

July 23 will represent the latest opening day in modern major league history (since 1901). Previously, the latest was in 1995, when the season opened on April 25 with the Florida Marlins hosting the Dodgers. It will also end a stretch of 266 days without a regular season or postseason game, which according to Stats LLC is the longest drought in major league history, passing the 256 days between games in 1994-95 (players’ strike).

View the Rays 2020 60-Game Schedule