NEW YORK (AFP) – Major League Baseball’s coronavirus-delayed 2020 season gets underway July 23 with the World Series champion Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees, MLB said Monday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers host their National League West rivals San Francisco Giants on opening day, with all other 28 teams launching the abbreviated season on the 24th.
Those games will include the first game at the Texas Rangers new Globe Life Field, where they will host the Colorado Rockies.
The 60-game regular season will see teams play their four division rivals 10 times each. Their other 20 games will be against interleague opponents in the same region as MLB attempts to minimize travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The season was to have started on March 26, and MLB and the players’ union didn’t reach agreement on a shortened format until June 23.
Teams have begun pre-season training, but there have been hiccups in implementing MLB’s coronavirus prevention protocols.
Both the Nationals and the Houston Astros called off practice on Monday after results from COVID-19 tests taken by team members on Friday failed to arrive.
MLB blamed the delay on the disruption of the Fourth of July holiday.