Major League Baseball announced plans for the first regular-season series to be played in Mexico City on Wednesday.
Hopefully, this time the games will come to fruition.
MLB revealed that the Giants and Padres are slated to square off at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico’s capital city for a two-game series on April 29 and 30, 2023. Previously, MLB had scheduled regular-season series in Mexico City for ’20 and ’22, but the COVID-19 pandemic and labor stoppage, respectively, snuffed those plans.
Besides playing in a border city, the Padres have a history in Mexico. They played MLB’s first regular-season games in the country when they hosted the Mets for a three-game series in Monterrey in 1996. The Padres later opened the ’99 season against the Rockies in Monterrey.
More recently in 2016, the Padres played the Astros in a pair of exhibition games in Mexico City. San Diego also played a three-game regular-season series against the Dodgers in ’18.
This will be the first time the Giants have played regular-season games outside the United States and Canada.
MLB had scheduled two regular-season games between the Padres and Diamondbacks in Mexico City on April 18 and 19, 2020, but those were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Giants and Marlins were slated to play in Mexico City on June 2 and 3, 2022, but that series was canceled due to schedule delays as a result of the owners’ offseason lockout of the players.
Earlier this month, MLB announced a two-game series between the Cardinals and Cubs scheduled for June 24 and 25, 2023, in London.
