Jul 06, 2020

Royals to open 2020 season July 24 at Cleveland

Posted Jul 06, 2020 11:12 PM

KANSAS CITY, MO (July 6, 2020) — In conjunction with Major League Baseball, the Kansas City Royals tonight announced their revised 60-game schedule for the 2020 regular season.

Opening Day is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. CT on Friday, July 24 at Progressive Field vs. the Cleveland Indians, to mark just the second time in the last six seasons in which Kansas City will open on the road. It will be the sixth time in Royals’ history in which they will open on a Friday, and the first since 2012. This will represent the latest Opening Day in Royals history, after the club played its earliest Opening Day last season on March 28. Their 2020 opener will mark the 300th day since the Royals last took the field in a regular season game on Sept. 29, 2019, when they closed out the season with a 5-4 walk-off win vs. Minnesota.

The Royals’ 2020 home opener is now scheduled for 7:05 p.m. CT on Friday, July 31 vs. the Chicago White Sox, which will end a streak of 305 days without a regular season game at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City will play 60 games in 66 days this season, including 30 games at home and 30 on the road. Forty games (66.7%) will be played within the American League Central division, and the remaining 20 games will be played vs. the National League Central division.

The breakdown includes 10 games each vs. Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, Detroit and Minnesota. Kansas City will host three games vs. Cleveland, seven games vs. the Chicago White Sox, four games vs. Detroit and six games vs. Minnesota. The Royals will travel for seven games in Cleveland, three games at the Chicago White Sox, six games in Detroit and four games in Minnesota.

The Royals’ 20-game Interleague schedule will feature six games vs. their intrastate rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, including a three-game set at Busch Stadium from Aug. 24-26 and a three-game set at Kauffman Stadium from Sept. 21-23. They will host Pittsburgh for the first time since 2015, for a three-game series from Sept. 11-13, and will travel to Milwaukee’s Miller Park for the first time since 2018, for a three-game set from Sept. 18-20. The Royals will round out their Interleague schedule with four games each vs. the Reds and Cubs, including two games in Cincinnati from Aug. 11-12, followed by two games vs. the Reds in Kansas City from Aug. 18-19; and a home-and-home set vs. the Cubs, beginning with two games at Wrigley Field from Aug. 3-4, and concluding with two games at Kauffman Stadium from Aug. 5-6.

The Royals will play on just one national holiday this season, when they travel to Cleveland on Labor Day (Sept. 7).

Kansas City’s home games will feature weeknight first pitch times at 7:05 p.m. CT. Saturday home games will begin at 6:05 p.m. CT and Sunday home games will start at 1:05 p.m. The only two exceptions are on Thursday, Aug. 6, when the Royals will host the Chicago Cubs beginning at 6:15 p.m. CT, and on the final day of the regular season, Sunday, Sept. 27, when the Royals will host Detroit beginning at 2:05 p.m. CT.

The Royals will host two season-high seven-game homestands, from Aug. 31-Sept. 6 vs. Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox, and to close out the regular season from Sept. 21-27 vs. St. Louis and Detroit. Kansas City will open the schedule with a season-long seven-game road trip from July 24-30 at Cleveland and Detroit. The Royals will have two 17-day stretches without an off day, from July 24-Aug. 9 and Aug. 28-Sept. 13. They are scheduled for four off days in August (10th, 13th, 20th and 27th) and two in September (14th and 17th).

The game dates and times are subject to change.

--- Royals Press Release ---