Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees to Open the 2017 MLB Season

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Major League Baseball announced that the Tampa Bay Rays will throw out the first pitch in the 2017 season.

The Rays will open the 2017 season at home at Tropicana Field against the New York Yankees on Sunday, April 2 at 1:10 p.m. The game will be the first played on Opening Day and will be televised on ESPN.

According to The Sporting News, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement at the end of the league’s quarterly owners meetings in Chicago on Thursday.

The Chicago Cubs, who won their first World Series since 1908, are scheduled to play later that day against their long-time rival St. Louis Cardinals at 8:30 pm. In between the two games, the San Francisco Giants are scheduled to play the Arizona Diamondbacks at 4:10 p.m.

The 2017 Major League Baseball season is set to begin after the fourth installment of the World Baseball Classic takes place in March. Several Grapefruit League teams will host World Baseball Classic exhibition games during Spring Training next year as well.

The Tampa Bay Rays full 2017 schedule will be announced soon. For updates, visit http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/.

Image via Arturo Pardavila III, Flickr, used under Creative Commons