Royals unveil 2020 schedule

For the third year in a row, the Royals will open the season against the White Sox, although it will be in Chicago this time, according to the 2020 schedule released by MLB today. Baseball will begin on March 26, the earliest opening day in club history. The Royals travel to Chicago and Detroit before opening the home schedule on Thursday, April 2 against the Mariners.

This year’s interleague schedule will take the Royals to Colorado on June 22-24, Arizona on August 17-18, and San Francisco on August 28-30, as well as their annual series in St. Louis on September 15-16. The Royals will host the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 15-17, the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 30-July 1, and Eric Hosmer returns with the San Diego Padres on July 24-26. The Cardinasls come to town for a quick two-game series on August 4-5.

The Royals will play just six games in the first nine days of the season, with two Fridays off, in case their season opener or home opener is postponed due to weather. The Royals have three 10-game road trips, including one right before the All-Star break that will cause them to go 15 consecutive days without a home game.

Other highlights of the MLB schedule include the Marlins hosting the Mets in Hiram Birthorn Stadium in Puerto Rico on April 28-30. The Cardinals will play the Cubs in London on June 13-14. The All-Star Game will be held at Dodger Stadium on July 14. The Orioles will play the Red Sox in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League Classic on August 23. There will be no MLB regular season game in Omaha this year to kick off the College World Series, as there was this year when the Royals played the Tigers.

Baseball seems intent on beginning the season early enough to avoid any World Series games to be played in November. However this causes uncomfortably cold games in a number of cities in late March, causing poor attendance, poor play, and postponements. Baseball can’t force all the warm-weather teams to host games for the first week or two so why not just let the post-season go into November when the weather the first week is still typically warmer than late March? Baseball wants to avoid any inclement weather for its marquee event, but still, the World Series only affects two teams, and you have about a 50 percent chance it ends up in a warm weather city or dome anyway!

Anyway, prepare to bundle up.

Game times and a promotional schedule will be announced on a later date.