After adjusting their schedule because of Hurricane Dorian, the Tampa Bay Rays will host the Baltimore Orioles in a single-admission doubleheader Tuesday afternoon.
The Rays were originally to host the Orioles in a three-game set that wrapped up Wednesday, but on Saturday they announced that the series would conclude with a doubleheader on Tuesday. This adjustments allows the Orioles to leave the Tampa Bay region sooner, with Wednesday to now be an off day for both teams. Games scheduled for later this week at Tropicana Field have not been affected thus far, as the Rays are slated to begin a four-game home series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday.
Tuesday’s doubleheader will begin at 3:10 EST. Game two will follow approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first contest.
Notably, this will be the Rays’ third doubleheader at Tropicana Field and the first since 2017. The franchise’s very first doubleheader at Tropicana Field came on September 30, 2004, when the then Devil Rays hosted the Detroit Tigers to makeup for two games that were postponed earlier in the month because of the threat of Hurricane Frances.
The doubleheader is the result of one of several scheduling adjustments made around professional baseball in anticipation of Hurricane Dorian making landfall in the Southeastern United States early this week. The Rookie-level Gulf Coast League and High-A Florida State League both cancelled all regular-season games after Thursday and their postseasons. In addition, series in the Double-A Southern League, High-A Carolina League, and Low-A South Atlantic League were abbreviated in some fashion. The Southern League cancelled the last two games of a Labor Day weekend series between the Jackson Generals and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, and Monday’s regular-season finales for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Carolina League) and Charleston RiverDogs (South Atlantic League) were cancelled after a mandatory evacuation order was issued for South Carolina’s coastal counties. The RiverDogs were playing a home series against the Greenville Drive, and Monday’s cancellation allowed the Pelicans to make an early exit from Wilmington, DE.
RELATED STORIES: Florida State League Cancels Remainder of Season; Gulf Coast League Will End Season Thursday