ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—In response to ongoing challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Baseball has announced a series of schedule changes impacting seven clubs. Among them, the Tampa Bay Rays game against the New York Yankees scheduled for Thursday, August 6 has been rescheduled as part of a traditional doubleheader on Saturday, August 8. The first game will begin at 2:10 p.m., and both games will be seven innings in length. On Friday, MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association jointly announced that any doubleheaders played for the remainder of the 2020 season will be seven innings each, unless extended because of a tie score.

The remainder of the four-game series on Friday, August 7 and Sunday, August 9 will remain as scheduled. The move was necessary because the Yankees will now play a makeup game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday, August 6.

The doubleheader will be the fourth ever played at Tropicana Field, all of them traditional, and the Rays have split the previous three. The first, September 30, 2004 vs. Detroit, was a result of games rescheduled due to Hurricane Frances four weeks prior. The Rays lost the first game, 8-0, and won the second, 6-4. On June 10, 2017 vs. Oakland, the Rays hosted MLB’s first scheduled twin bill since July 16, 2011 (Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Athletics). They won the first game, 6-5, on a 10th-inning walk-off single by Evan Longoria, and lost the second game, 7-2. On September 3, 2019 vs. Baltimore, the series finale was moved up a day as part of a doubleheader as Hurricane Dorian approached. The Rays lost the first game, 4-2, and won the second, 2-0.