The White Sox will open their regular season against the Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field on July 24, a Friday night, and end with three games against the Cubs at home on Sept. 25-27.
Those are the featured bookends around the Sox’ slate in the abbreviated 60-game MLB schedules announced Monday. In between, the Sox are scheduled to play in the “Field of Dreams” game against the Cardinals on Aug. 13 in Dyersville, Iowa, and three games against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
They’ll play on the road at Cleveland, Kansas City and Milwaukee after hosting the Twins that first weekend, and like everyone else in the short season, they’ll be aiming for a fast start.
“I’m going to assume we’ve already played 102 games and we’re in first place and we’re trying to hold on to that slot,” manager Rick Renteria said of his approach to the schedule. “We’re going to proceed that way — obviously without putting anybody in harm’s way. But it is important for a club to get off to a good start because the schedule is waning. It’s short.”
Each team will play 40 games against opponents in its own division, along with 20 interleague games against teams from the same geographical division in the other league. The home and away games are unbalanced, with the Sox hosting the Twins in seven of their 10 matchups. Seven of 10 games against the Indians are in Cleveland, seven of 10 against the Tigers are at home, and seven of 10 against the Royals are in Kansas City. However, with fans not expected to attend games because of the coronavirus, home-field advantage might be negligible.
The Sox play three exhibition night games before the season begins: July 19 at the Cubs, July 20 against the Cubs at home and July 22 against the Brewers at home.