Nationals graphic
All of the sourced reports were correct that the Washington Nationals will play the Yankees in an exclusive Opening Night game on July 23 and broadcasted on ESPN at 7:08 pm EDT at Nats Park. The Nats will raise the 2019 Championship Banner on this day then play two more games against the Yankees on national broadcasts on FOX (Saturday, July 25) and TBS (Sunday, July 26). The matchup for this Opening Night game is already being hyped as Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer as the starters.
MLB will have a second game on Opening Night with the LA Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants starting at 10:08 pm EDT. The following day all of the other 26-teams will be in action (weather permitting).
With the 60-game schedule in this truncated season, the schedules bare no resemblance to the previous 162-game schedule as MLB has created three geographic regions East, Central, and West to mirror the current NL East vs AL East, NL Central vs AL Central and NL West vs AL West in 20 interleague games per team, and 10 games versus each division opponent. The Nats will play the Orioles 6 times, Blue Jays and Rays 4 times each, and the Yankees and Red Sox 3 times each for their 20 interleague configuration.
While there are many creative differences with this schedule, you will notice that the Nats have 19 of their home games are set to begin at 6:05 p.m. Most Sunday afternoon home games will begin at 12:35 p.m.
Also, MLB is allowing for a maximum of three exhibition games against the closest geographic teams, and the Nats have three scheduled games with one home game against the Phillies on July 18, a road game in Baltimore on July 20 and home game against those Orioles on July 21. All exhibitions are scheduled to start at 6:05 p.m.
