The Astros provide the opposition for the Seattle Mariners season opening game at Minute Maid Park in Houston, as well as for the Mariners Home Opener a week later at Safeco Field, according to the 2017 tentative regular season schedule released today by the Mariners.
The Mariners 40th Anniversary Season (1977-2017) opens on the road at Houston on Monday, April 3. After a four-game set vs. the Astros (April 3-6), the Mariners head to Los Angeles for a three-game weekend series (April 7-9) against the Angels, before heading home to Seattle for the Home Opener on Monday, April 10, against Houston.
Major League Baseball announced the complete 2017 tentative schedule for all 30 teams earlier today.
The nine-game opening homestand features a three-game series against the Astros (April 10-12), three against the Texas Rangers (April 14-16), and three interleague games against the Miami Marlins (April 17-19).
The Mariners will be home to celebrate two of the summer's major holidays - Tuesday, July 4 vs. the Kansas City Royals, and Labor Day (September 4) vs. Houston.
Next season, the American League West matches up with the National League East for interleague play. In addition to the home series against the Marlins in April, the Mariners host the Philadelphia Phillies at Safeco Field (June 27-28) and the New York Mets the weekend of July 28-30. The Mariners travel to Philadelphia (May 9-10), to Washington D.C. for three games against the Nationals (May 23-25), and to Atlanta for three-games against the Braves at the new SunTrust Park (August 21-23).
The Mariners will also play back-to-back two-game series against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field (May 29-30) and at Safeco Field (May 31-June 1).
The longest homestand of the season is 11 games, May 31-June 11 (vs. Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays). In late July, a 10-game homestand over two weekends includes the New York Yankees (July 20-23), Boston Red Sox (July 24-26) and New York Mets (July 28-30).
The longest road trip of the year in MLB is the Mariners four-city, 12-game journey to Tampa Bay (August 18-20), Atlanta (August 21-23), New York Yankees (August 25-27) and Baltimore (August 28-30).
The month of September is heavy on matchups against all four AL West rivals with the Mariners facing the Athletics, Astros, Angels and Rangers in 25 of the last 28 games. The only non-AL West team down the stretch is the Cleveland Indians, who visit Safeco Field September 22-24 for the final home series of the year.
The Mariners 2017 season concludes on the road, the first time that has happened since 2012, with three games in Oakland against the A's (September 25-27) and the final weekend in Los Angeles against the Angels (September 29-October 1).
The Mariners tentative 2017 schedule is available now on Mariners.com. The complete 2017 MLB tentative schedule of all 30 teams is now available on MLB.com.
Start times will be released later. The schedule will be finalized in January 2017.