Tampa Bay Rays Opening Day 2024: How To Watch; World Series Odds

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The Tampa Bay Rays are finally back in action on Thursday, March 28, with an Opening Day game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Tropicana Field.

The Rays also play the Blue Jays at home on Friday, 6:50 p.m.; Saturday, 4:10 p.m.; and Sunday, 1:40 p.m.

All 30 MLB teams will play on Opening Day for the second straight year, though the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres technically kicked off the regular season with a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea, last week. Each team walked away with one win.

Here’s what you need to know about the Rays first game.

How To Watch

The Rays' first pitch of the season is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. on Thursday. With Shane McClanahan recovering from Tommy John surgery, Zach Elfin is expected to take the mound for the Rays against the Blue Jays, according to MLB.com.

The game will air live on Bally Sports Sun, a regional sports television network formerly known as FOX Sports Sun. In the Tampa Bay area, Bally Sports Sun is available through Spectrum, Xfinity, AT&T U-verse, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, fuboTV and Wow!. It’s also widely available on cable, satellite and streaming providers throughout Florida, including Hotwire, Bluestream, Breezeline, Cox, Summit Broadband and Mediacom.

Out-of-market games will also air on MLB.TV

For those who still want to catch the game live, tickets are going for as low as $91 up to $349, according to TickPick.

Projected season record, according to ESPN: 87-75

World Series Odds

Oddsmakers are bullish about the Rays chances to win the World Series this year, giving them 3.85 percent odds to win it.

The Dodgers and Atlanta Braves enter the 2024 season with the best chance to win the World Series, according to the odds-aggregating website Oddschecker.com.

Oddsmakers gave the Dodgers about a 22 percent chance to win it all this year, and the Braves a 15 percent chance.

The Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Baltimore Orioles rounded out the top five at roughly 11 percent, 10 percent and 8 percent odds, respectively, with the Phillies and Orioles tying for fifth.

2024 Storylines

The Rays’ are going into Opening Day without shortstop Wander Franco, who is embroiled in a sex scandal and faces legal issues after being accused of having a sexual relationship with underage girls. The star player remains in his native Dominican Republic where the investigation continues.

Franco didn’t turn up for spring training because of the investigation and the Rays are expected to remove him from its 40-man roster, possibly placing him on either the restricted list or on administrative leave, Tampa Bay Times’ reporter Marc Topkin posted to X, formerly Twitter.

Among the other top storylines for this year: What will happen with new Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who found himself embroiled in a gambling scandal last week when his interpreter wired at least $4.5 million from the star’s bank account to a bookmaker that is under federal investigation.

Meanwhile, the A’s — in the midst of moving to Las Vegas —face an uncertain future about where they’ll play.

The Athletics’ community benefits deal with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority was unanimously approved last week. But they’ll still need three more agreements before the team can begin building a $1.5 billion planned stadium. The next planned stadium authority meeting is expected May 16.

The year will feature some big names vying for MVP, including Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Julio Rodriguez, Corey Seager and Yordan Alvarez in the American League. Oddsmakers give Soto and Judge the best odds at 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively, with the others coming in at 9 percent, 7.5 percent, and 7.5 percent.

In the National League, oddsmakers give Ronald Acuña Jr. and Mookie Betts the best chance to win the MVP award at 16 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Ohtani, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Freddie Freeman have the next highest odds at 9.5 percent, 9 percent and 7.5 percent.