Orioles 2020 schedule announced

Start clearing your calendars for the 2020 Orioles season now. Next year’s schedules for all 30 teams were announced by the league on Monday afternoon. The Orioles get Opening Day at home next year, with a Thursday, March 26 start to the season against the Yankees. After a season where they spent their first two series on the road, the O’s get two at home to start the 2020 season. A Red Sox series follows the Yankees one.

The O’s 2020 schedule will also feature a previously-announced game in Williamsport, Pa. on Sunday, August 23, for the Little League Classic. The night game against the Red Sox is a home game for the O’s and will be played at the home of the short-season Williamsport Crosscutters, a Phillies affiliate. This means there will be 80, rather than 81, games scheduled for Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 2020.

Another special game will be played on September 6, when the Orioles celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s streak of consecutive games played. They will host the Yankees on that Sunday game, in the middle of a four-game set. Things worked out pretty well in 2012 when the Orioles unveiled Cal’s statue against the Yankees on September 6.

The O’s will be at home for both Memorial Day and Labor Day in 2020. The Memorial Day game is the start of a four-game set against the White Sox. Labor Day, on September 7, will be the day after the Cal anniversary celebration. They’re also at home on Easter (April 12 against the Pirates), Mother’s Day (May 10 against the Angels), and Father’s Day (June 21 against the Rays).

For the first time in what feels like quite a while, the Orioles two-game set against the Nationals will coincide with a weekend, with a Saturday-Sunday series on August 8-9. This means the Orioles will have a scheduled Friday off day on August 7 before the series. It’s not quite as weird as when they had July 4 off this season, but it’s still weird. Speaking of July 4, the Orioles will be in Oakland for that holiday.

There are 14 home games in each of June and September. The O’s only ten-game homestand of the season lines up from September 4-13, with a nine-game homestand running from July 17-26.

That July homestand is the one right out of the All-Star break, which will be from July 13-16. The O’s are on the road for nine games heading into the break, including their annual stops in Oakland and Seattle.

The 2020 regular season will end for the Orioles on the road with a three-game set against the Red Sox from September 25-27. The last home series takes place against the Rays from September 21-24, and the last home weekend series is September 11-13 against the Brewers. This means the Orioles will play nine of their last 13 games on the road. This fact probably won’t matter for much beyond whether the Orioles lose 100+ games for a third straight season.

As you can tell from the mention of the Brewers and Pirates, next year is the O’s year to play the NL Central. They have three games each against Milwaukee and Pittsburgh at home, three on the road against the Cardinals and Reds, and two at home and two on the road against the Cubs. The home games against the Cubs are April 14-15, so the O’s will have half of their interleague over before the end of April.