The Padres have gone international and fans in San Diego will have to either stay up late, real late, or get up early, real early, to watch the team play their first game of the season.
The San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers will open the Major League Baseball season Wednesday, March 20th in Seoul, Korea, the first pitch is set for 3:05am (PST).
Yeah, a lot of alarms in San Diego are being set for 2:45am Wednesday.
Not the usual start time for baseball games, not the usual start to the season.
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The game will be played at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome, eight days before MLB's traditional Opening Day.
By starting the MLB season on this international stage, MLB expands exposure to its product, teams and players. This will be the first time MLB has opened a season in an international venue since 2019, it will also be the first MLB game played in South Korea.
The Padres of course, have a Korean star on their roster.
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Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim was born and raised just outside Seoul and, in addition to returning to his home country, is also returning to his home ballpark for the Seoul Series. He starred for the Kiwoom Heroes from 2014-20 and the Gocheok Sky Dome was his home stadium. Kim has been the center attention since the Padres arrived in Korea last week, and will obviously receive a huge ovation during the first game on Wednesday and the second game the teams are playing Thursday.
While Kim is the main attraction for the Padres, the Dodgers main attraction is their new star player Shohei Ohtani. The Dodgers spent $1.1 billion this off-season in player moves with the $700 million free-agent signing of Ohtani being the marquee move.
On Wednesday, the Padres will send Yu Darvish out as their starting pitcher, while the Dodgers will counter with Tyler Glasnow. For Thursday's game Joe Musgrove will get the start against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
After the two games in Korea, the Padres will fly home then have their home Opening Day March 28th at Petco Park against the San Francisco Giants.
