We have known who the Pirates would play in 2020 for weeks, but on Monday, we finally learned what that schedule will look like. With no thanks to MLB Network, though, which ignominiously skipped over the Pirates -- and the Orioles and Blue Jays -- on its televised, team-by-team release of the schedule.
Whatever. Baseball is back.
Major League Baseball released their season schedules Monday, and the Pirates will start in St. Louis on July 24 against the Cardinals at 8:15 p.m.. It will be a three-game series.
Here is the full schedule:
The Pirates' home opener will be the season's second series, playing host to the Brewers on July 27. It will also be a three-game series.
"It’s exciting," Derek Shelton said Monday afternoon about the announcement. "I think we had a good idea two weeks ago when they said, ‘OK, you’re just going to play in the Central in both leagues, so you have a general of who you’re going to face.’ But after you see it and know the places you’re going to go and see the outline of how it’s going to work, it starts to make you formulate in your head, ‘OK, this is what we should do. This is how we should do it. This is who we should pitch.’ It gives our staff and it gives our analysts and informatics group a chance to actually start preparing for things. And it gives me an opportunity to start looking and seeing that we’re going to this and how we’re going to do it."
Going based on 2019 win-loss records, the Pirates' opponents have a .568 winning percentage through Aug. 6, or the first two weeks of the season. That is the second-hardest start for any club.
Additionally, 15 of their first 23 games are on the road. While there won't be opposing crowds to deal with, that is still a fair amount of travel.
This will be a 60-game season. The Pirates will play each of their National League Central rivals 10 times, with the other 20 games being against the American League Central.
Because of traveling restrictions, teams will not be able to have an even number of home and road games against each team. Games against divisional opponents will be divided in either a 6/4 or 7/3 split.
The Pirates will play the Cardinals twice early in the season, with their second meeting also coming in St. Louis from Aug. 10-13, but they won't have their final series until over a month later when they kick off a four-game series at PNC Park.
They will play the Cubs seven times in September, all at home, plus a three-game series from July 31-Aug. 2.
The Pirates will be done playing the Brewers before the schedule turns to September. They get them at home from July 27-29 and Aug. 21-23, and then on the road from Aug. 28-31.
The Reds will be the Pirates' penultimate road series.
Teams will have six off-days over the 66-day season. Since teams will have expanded rosters at the start of the season but not the end, it would seem to be more beneficial to have those off-days in September. Four of the Pirates' off-days take place in July and August.
