SAN DIEGO — More than 2,000 miles away from St. Petersburg, the Tampa Bay Rays will take on the New York Yankees inside the MLB bubble at Petco Park in San Diego, California. The division series, league championship series and World Series will all be part of a "bubble" designed to minimize the coronavirus' spread.
The best-of-five series gets underway with game one of the American League Division Series at 8:07 p.m tonight.
The Rays advance to the ALDS after beating the Toronto Blue Jays in 2 wild card games last week.
This is not the first sports bubble we've seen. The NHL and NBA both entered playoff bubbles.
So, what will an MLB bubble look like?
The MLB will operate four separate bubbles for the latter rounds of the postseason. There will be two fields in California and two in Texas.
For the Rays, if they advance, they would stay there for the AL championship series. All without fans in the stands. Of course, the next stop would be the Worlds Series, which will be played at Globe Life Field, a bubble stadium, in Texas.
For the first time in the entire season, a limited number of tickets will be available for NLCS and World Series games. All of which will be played at Globe Life Field. About 11,500 seats will be filled in a stadium that can house about 40,00 fans.
The World Series is scheduled to begin on October 20. It will be the first World Series played entirely at a neutral field.
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