Season to open Friday, July 24
DALLAS — Major League Baseball announced the schedule for the 2020 season Monday. Two games will be played on Thursday, July 23 with the rest of the league starting their seasons on Friday, July 24.
The Texas Rangers will open their 60-game season at home against the Colorado Rockies on Friday, July 24, with first pitch starting at 7:05 p.m. The Rangers will host a three-game series against the Rockies before hosting a pair of games against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29.
Texas is scheduled to have a very busy month of August, where they are set to play 28 games with just three days off in the entire month. Fifteen of these games will be played at home, the first of which is a three-game series against the Los Angels Angles Friday, Aug. 7-Sunday, Aug. 9. The Rangers will then start another three-game set at home Monday, Aug. 10 against the Seattle Mariners.
The San Diego Padres will come to town for a pair of games on Monday, Aug. 17 and Tuesday, Aug. 18, and the Rangers will play their final seven games of the month at home. The homestead will start Monday, Aug. 24 with a four-game series against the Oakland Athletics and will end with the finale of a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Texas is set to have a difficult final month, with two different trips to Houston to take on divisional rival and reigning American League champion Astros for a total of six games. The Rangers will finish their season with a four-game series against Houston, starting Thursday, Sept. 24. Their final regular season game will be a 2:05 p.m. start Sunday, Sept. 27.
Given the 60-game setup MLB had to set for this season, the Rangers will travel farther than any team in the league for a total of 14,678 miles. The Rangers will also have the sixth toughest strength of schedule this season with their opponents having a combined winning percentage of .518 last season.
Texas will face a few other changes this season as well. Home night games against AL West teams will be pushed back to 8:05 p.m. rather than their usual 7:05 p.m. start. However, the Rangers will be starting at 8:05 p.m. on their road night games against AL West opponents, rather than the usual 9:05 p.m. CT start. Their toughest stretch will come between Aug. 14 and Sept. 13, during which time they will play 30 games in 31 days.
The Rangers will open and close the season in their brand new stadium. Fans will not be allowed to attend the first five home games, but MLB will re-evaluate its attendance policy for the month of August.