When Major League Baseball announced the 2020 regular season schedule, it called for the Los Angeles Dodgers to face the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, March 26. It was due to be one of 15 games as all clubs were scheduled to be in action on Opening Day.
However, the landscape began to change when MLB cancelled the remainder of Spring Training and initially delayed the start of the season by two weeks. Opening Day was pushed back a second time and eventually suspended indefinitely.
With MLB commissioner Rob Manfred imposing a 60-game season that is poised to begin July 23 for a select number of teams, schedules were required to be redone.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY, the full unveiling of the 2020 regular season schedule will come Monday, and it is expected to have the Dodgers hosting the Giants on July 23:
Major League Baseball plans to officially announce its 2020 schedule Monday. The #Yankees at #Nats and #SFGiants at #Dodgers are expected to be the two nationally televised games on July 23, with everyone else opening July 24.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) July 4, 2020
The defending World Series champion Washington Nationals were previously reported as being slated to play the New York Yankees, and Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten revealed his team would also be in action on the first day of the season.
However, when pressed for details, Kasten said he could not confirm the Dodgers’ opponent or if it would be a home or road game. “That’s going to evolve until the last dot is dotted,” he said of the 2020 schedule.
“We won’t really know because any change to any one game in any city has a domino effect. So we really don’t have a schedule yet and we don’t have anything to announce.”
The Dodgers named Clayton Kershaw their Opening Day starter in early March. Kershaw was among the players to speak with media during the team’s first official workout of Spring Training 2.0, and said the expectation was he would still take the mound in the season opener.
2020 schedule details
With MLB looking to limit travel and thus the risk of players contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19), teams are going to play a 60-game schedule that is regionally based.
The Dodgers will have 40 games divided evenly amongst the other four National League West teams, and play 20 against American League West clubs.
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