MLB to allow fans at NLCS, World Series
Fans can take themselves out to the ball game for the first time this season during the NL Championship Series and World Series at new Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
MLB said Wednesday that about 11,500 tickets will be available for each game. That is about 28% of the 40,518-capacity, retractable-roof stadium of the Rangers, which opened this year adjacent to old Globe Life Park, the team’s open-air home from 1994 through 2019.
The World Series is being played at a neutral site for the first time in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It will be played at one stadium for the first time since the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Browns at Sportsman’s Park in 1944.
Some of the seats will be included in presales for Rangers season ticket holders on Friday and subscribers on Monday, and others are set aside for MLB and players.
Tickets are priced at $40-250 for the NLCS and $75-450 for the World Series, and 10,550 seats in the regular sections of the ballpark and 950 in suites will be sold in “pods” of four contiguous seats.
Each pod will be distanced by at least 6 feet and a checkerboard pattern will be used, with alternating rows of seats in the middle or rows and at the ends. Unsold seats will be tied back.
No seats will be sold in the first six rows within 20 feet of the field, dugouts or bullpen. Fans will not be allowed to the lowest level, which is reserved for MLB’s tier one personnel, such as players and managers.
Masks are mandatory for fans except while they are eating or drinking at their ticketed seats.
MLB played the entire regular season without fans and also the first round of the playoffs with no fans. For the first time since spring training was interrupted March 12, club employees and player families were allowed to attend games this week.
While Texas is allowing up to 50% capacity at venues, MLB didn’t anticipate having government permission for fans to attend postseason games at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles or Petco Park in San Diego, where AL playoff games are scheduled.
A’s even series: Marcus Semien and Khris Davis homered early and the host Athletics held off Jose Abreu and the White Sox in the late innings for a 5-3 win Wednesday that sent their AL wild-card series to a deciding Game 3.
A’s reliever Jake Diekman walked home a run in the ninth, then retired the big-hitting Abreu on a sharp grounder to end it and even the best-of-three wild-card series at 1-1.
Game 3 is Thursday at the Coliseum.
The White Sox went 14-0 in the regular season against left-handed starters during the regular season and beat southpaw Jesus Luzardo in the opener. A’s manager Bob Melvin acknowledged it might make him reconsider who to start with the season on the line — perhaps righty Mike Fiers over lefty Sean Manaea.
Chris Bassitt allowed one run on six hits in seven-plus innings during an impressive postseason debut as the AL West champion A’s snapped a six-game postseason losing streak dating to 2013.
Marlins open strong: Corey Dickerson hit a three-run homer off a fading Kyle Hendricks in the seventh, and the visiting Marlins beat the Cubs 5-1 in Game 1 of their NL wild-card series.
Jesus Aguilar also homered and Sandy Alcantara pitched three-hit ball into the seventh as the Marlins conjured up memories of past playoff magic in the franchise’s first postseason game since it won the World Series in 2003. The Marlins, who rallied past the Cubs in a memorable NLCS that year, have never lost a playoff series.
Game 2 is Thursday at Wrigley Field. Yu Darvish starts for the NL Central champion Cubs, while rookie right-hander Sixto Sanchez pitches for the upstart Marlins, looking to make an unexpected division series trip in the same season that roughly half the roster was sidelined by COVID-19.
The Marlins may be without center fielder Starling Marte after he was hit on the left hand by a fastball in the ninth.