ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (TSX / STATS) — Major League Baseball announced Monday that due to the catastrophic flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey in the Houston area, this week’s series between Texas Rangers and Houston Astros will be moved to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The Rangers and Astros will play on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. ET and on Thursday at 1:10 p.m. ET. The Astros will be the home team for the three-game series at the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The league also announced that the Astros’ three-game series against the New York Mets scheduled Friday through Sunday at Minute Maid Park may also be moved to Tropicana Field. That decision will be made later this week.
“The safety of our fans, players and staff remain our main priority,” Astros president of business operations Reid Ryan said in a statement. “We are extremely grateful to the Tampa Bay Rays organization for allowing us to use their facility. We’ll make a decision on this weekend’s series vs. the Mets in the upcoming days as we continue to monitor the conditions. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by the Hurricane.”
MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association announced that the parties will jointly donate $1 million to various relief efforts for the damage throughout the state of Texas created by Hurricane Harvey, including to the American Red Cross.
The Astros flew from Orange County to Dallas on Sunday night after they concluded their series finale against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. The Rangers flew to Dallas after they ended their a series against the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. Both teams had an off day Monday.
The remnants of Hurricane Harvey continued dumping historic levels of rainfall on the Houston area Monday. The National Weather Service said flooding isn’t expected to peak until Wednesday or Thursday. Some areas of southeast Texas around Houston have already seen more than 30 inches of rain.
The tropical storm was set to re-enter the Gulf of Mexico later Monday and make another landfall closer to Houston around two days later, prolonging the flooding disaster. Texas officials said Monday afternoon that at least eight people have died as a result of the storm battering the state.
There is precedent for a neutral-site series, including when the Astros played the Chicago Cubs in Milwaukee in 2008 because of Hurricane Ike.
The Astros were at a hotel in Irving, Texas, as they awaited MLB’s decision.
“We have families that are stuck, we have families that are in closets worried about tornadoes, a lot of heavy hearts and that’s not even counting what we don’t know,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said after Sunday’s 7-5 win. “It’s a game and we played hard and there’s a lot of people going through a lot in the world, but I think our guys were really concerned and continue to be concerned. This is not going to be solved by one win, this is not going to be solved overnight and we want our people to be safe.
“Most of us are going to Dallas with an expectation that this whole series is going to be disrupted. It’s impossible for us to think based on the coverage that we’re seeing out of Houston that there’s going to baseball that needs to be played and will be played.”
The Rangers announced the organization will donate the proceeds from its Texas 2 Split 50/50 Raffle to the American Red Cross from all three games of the upcoming home series with the Angels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The proceeds will used for relief for the victims in the Houston area and South Texas.
“The thoughts of the Texas Rangers organization are with all the individuals who have been affected by this devastating weather in South Texas and the Houston area,” Rangers Foundation chairman and ownership committee chairman Neil Leibman said in a statement. “We pray for their safety in these very difficult circumstances.”
