ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Tampa Bay Rays Communications) — With Hurricane Irma causing severe weather conditions throughout Florida, Major League Baseball has moved the three-game series between the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees from Tropicana Field to Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. As originally scheduled, the series will be played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The Rays will be considered the home team and will bat last.
“After much consideration, our games against the Yankees will be moved to Citi Field as Hurricane Irma approaches Florida,” said Rays President Brian Auld. “We are grateful to the Mets for opening their doors to us. We are most concerned with the safety of our fans, our families, friends and neighbors.”
Fans holding tickets to Rays-Yankees games at Tropicana Field should check raysbaseball.com/irma and all social media channels in coming days for information on exchanging their tickets or receiving a refund.
Information on purchasing tickets to these games at Citi Field, as well as media credentials, will be announced later.
Television broadcast information will be announced soon by Fox Sports Sun. All three games will air on the radio on WDAE 620 AM and in Spanish on WGES 680 AM.
The Yankees-Rays series schedule:
Monday, September 11 7:10 p.m.
Tuesday, September 12 7:10 p.m.
Wednesday, September 13 1:10 p.m.
This will be the third time that Rays games have been affected by hurricanes. In 2004, Hurricane Frances caused the postponement of two home games vs. the Detroit Tigers (September 4-5), later made up as a doubleheader. On September 17, 2000, the Rays home game vs. the Oakland Athletics was postponed and never made up due to Hurricane Gordon.
This is believed to be only the fifth time in the history of Major League Baseball that weather concerns have required the relocation of games to a neutral site. Just last week, Tropicana Field hosted a three-game series between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros, due to the devastation in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey. It previously happened September 14-15, 2008 (Chicago Cubs at Houston Astros, two games held at Miller Park in Milwaukee) due to Hurricane Ike, April 10- 12, 2007 (Los Angeles Angels at Cleveland Indians, three games at Miller Park) due to snow and September 13-14, 2004 (Montreal Expos at Florida Marlins, two games at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago) due to Hurricane Ivan.