It's official: Pirates open 60-game MLB season at St. Louis, play Brewers in home opener

The Pittsburgh Pirates will open the 2020 season on July 24 at the St. Louis Cardinals, then return July 27 for their home opener against the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park, MLB Network announced Monday night in a schedule release special.

The trip to St. Louis will be a three-game series to open the shortened baseball season, after the sport was shut down for three-plus months by the coronavirus pandemic. The Pirates will play the Cardinals at 8:15 p.m. on July 24, followed by a 2 p.m. start July 25 that will be aired on MLB Network.

The Pirates then host the Brewers for a three-game homestand, starting with the home opener at 7:05 p.m. on July 27. The first of their six days off comes July 30, as the Pirates will attempt to play 60 games in 66 days against teams from the NL Central and AL Central.

The schedule involves one six-game and two eight-game homestands, as well as seven day games at PNC Park with the possibility of an eighth. The time of the Cardinals game Sept. 20 has yet to be determined. It also marks the first visit to PNC Park by Cleveland since 2015 and a string of games on 17 consecutive days to end the season.

“It’s exciting,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I think we had a good idea two weeks ago when they said, ‘OK, you’re just going to play in the Central in both leagues, so you have a general of who you’re going to face.’ But after you see it and know the places you’re going to go and see the outline of how it’s going to work, it starts to make you formulate in your head, ‘OK, this is what we should do. This is how we should do it. This is who we should pitch.’ It gives our staff and it gives our analysts and informatics group a chance to actually start preparing for things. And it gives me an opportunity to start looking and seeing that we’re going to this and how we’re going to do it. ”

The Pirates will play 40 games against NL Central opponents, facing the Cardinals, Brewers, Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds 10 times each. The home-away matchups, however, are staggered. The Pirates play six games at St. Louis while hosting the Cardinals for four games. They play six home games against the Brewers, with four at Milwaukee. The Pirates play seven games at Cincinnati, while hosting the Reds for three. That’s the opposite of their series with the Cubs, playing seven games at PNC Park and three at Wrigley Field.

The schedule also involves 20 interleague games against AL Central teams. That includes six games against their determined interleague rival, the Cleveland Indians, hosting them from Aug. 15-18, and finishing the season Sept. 25-27 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Click here for the complete schedule.

The Pirates also play four games against the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox, playing two games home and away. The Pirates play three games against both the Detroit Tigers (all at home) and Kansas City Royals (all away).

After spending the past two seasons as the Twins bench coach, Shelton takes comfort in his familiarity with his opponents in the AL Central that he hopes can balance his learning of NL Central foes.

“I definitely think so,” Shelton said. “When you play in interleague and you really don’t know, but the fact that I’ve come from the Central and seen guys, having a little general knowledge there and relying on our group here, that was the one little disadvantage of me coming into the National League. Again, the time that I used during the spring training 1.0 and 2.0 to watch the Central, to try and get myself up to speed on it and watch different things because I didn’t have as much baseline knowledge of every team. When you’re watching Pirates games, I usually watched them in the Central.”

The trip to Minnesota on Aug. 3-4 will be a homecoming of sorts for Shelton, who counts Twins manager Rocco Baldelli as one of his best friends in baseball.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Shelton said. “Really looking forward to rolling in through Minnesota to see what he can plan, the fact that he’s had months to plan something as opposed to what he planned in two weeks in spring training.”

Baldelli surprised Shelton with a sign from MLB Media Day, and Twins greats Rod Carew and Tony Oliva made the trip to Bradenton to celebrate Shelton’s Grapefruit League debut at LECOM Park.

“Yeah, it’s going to be a cool situation to play them,” Shelton said. “Lot of friends there on their staff I’m extremely close with. I talk to Rocco, if not every day, every other day, still. It will be cool. It’s one of those things that anytime you get to play in a place where you’ve been and you have special relationships, it makes it fun. But lord only knows what he’s going to do to me once I go in there.”

JULY

24: at Cardinals, 8:15

25: at Cardinals, 2:15

26: at Cardinals, 2:15

27: BREWERS, 7:05

28: BREWERS, 7:05

29: BREWERS, 7:05

31: at Cubs, 8:15

AUGUST

1: at Cubs, 8:15

2: at Cubs, 2:20

3: at Twins, 8;10

4: at Twins, 2:10

5: TWINS, 7:05

6: TWINS, 1:35

7: TIGERS, 7:05

8: TIGERS, 4:05

9: TIGERS, 1:35

10: at Cardinals, 8:15

11: at Cardinals, 8:15

12: at Cardinals, 2:15

13: at Reds, 5:10

14: at Reds, 7:10

15: at Reds, 6:10

16: at Reds, 1:10

18: INDIANS, 7:05

19: INDIANS, 7:05

20: INDIANS, 7:05

21: BREWERS, 7:05

22: BREWERS, 4:05

23: BREWERS, 1:35

25: at White Sox, 8:10

26: at White Sox, 2:10

28: at Brewers, 8:10

29: at Brewers, 7:10

30: at Brewers, 2:10

31: at Brewers, 7:40

SEPTEMBER

1: CUBS, 7:05

2: CUBS, 7:05

3: CUBS, 1:35

4: REDS, 7:05

5: REDS, 7:05

6: REDS, 1:35

8: WHITE SOX, 7:05

9: WHITE SOX, 7:05

11: at Royals, 8:05

12: at Royals, 7:05

13: at Royals, 2:05

14: at Reds, 6:40

15: at Reds, 6:40

16: at Reds, 6:40

17: CARDINALS, 7:05

18: CARDINALS, 7:05

19: CARDINALS, 7:05

20: CARDINALS, TBD

21: CUBS, 7:05

22: CUBS, 7:05

23: CUBS, 7:05

24: CUBS, 7:05

25: at Indians, 7:10

26: at Indians, 7:10

27: at Indians, 3:10