Photo Credit: Jean-Gabriel Fernandez
The first full week of spring training baseball games for the Milwaukee Brewers is a good reminder of what life might be like for the next seven months or more: Starting on March 26, the Brewers have 162 games scheduled in the span of 186 days, including 98 evening contests and 24 weekday day games. It can be a bit of a challenge for fans to plan their lives around seeing all (or even most) of them.
This year’s schedule has good news for fans who like catching the Brewers in the evening before bedtime: As noted above, 98 games are scheduled to start between 5:40 p.m. and 7:40 p.m. Central Time (CT) this season, up from 91 in 2019 and 94 in 2018. The Brewers’ interleague opponents this season come from the AL East, so the late nights on the calendar have also diminished a bit: 12 Brewers games started at or after 8 p.m. CT in 2019 as opposed to just eight in 2020.
As was the case last year, Thursday evenings remain the best time to make other plans: The Brewers play just seven Thursday night games during this season’s 27 Thursdays, up from four last year. This year, however, they are off most often on Monday. They’ll be idle 11 times on the first day of the work week, including on Memorial Day.
Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:
Monday:
Day Games: 1
Night Games: 13
Late Games: 1
Off Days: 11
Monday is the Brewers’ most frequent off day on the schedule in 2020 for the first time since 2017, which was before MLB adopted the current schedule template. This year’s schedule also continues the decline of one of baseball’s longtime scheduling practices, the wrap-around, four-game weekend series that wrapped up with a Monday day game. The Brewers play just one of those in 2020, concluding a series with a Labor Day matinee against the Dodgers on September 7.
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Tuesday:
Day Games: 0
Night Games: 24
Late Games: 1
Off Days: 1
As has often been the case, Tuesday is the single most reliable day on the schedule with a Brewers game in the evening every week from the end of March through September. The lone off day on this list isn’t really a full off day: It’s the night of the All-Star Game on July 14. With the exception of the All-Star Game, the Brewers haven’t had an in-season Tuesday off since 2016 and have played just three Tuesday day games since the start of the 2017 season.
Wednesday:
Day Games: 10
Night Games: 14
Late Games: 0
Off Days: 2
Counting 2020, the Brewers will have been scheduled for at least 10 Wednesday day games each season since 2018. Five of them are at home, spread across the calendar on “get-away” days to wrap up a series. Last season the Brewers primarily played Wednesday night games once kids were back in school in September but this year the schedule features day games on September 9 and 23 in the stretch run.
Thursday:
Day Games: 12
Night Games: 7
Late Games: 1
Off Days: 7
Thursday is the most fungible day on a Brewers fan’s calendar again in 2020 with the Crew playing after 5:30 p.m. just eight times over a span of 27 weeks. Their 12 day games on Thursday this season, however, are the most they’ve played since at least 2013.
In 2018 and 2019, the Brewers had long stretches with Thursdays off late in the season: In 2018, they played just once on the season’s final seven Thursdays, and in 2019, they had four consecutive Thursdays off in August. In 2020, there is no such streak.
Friday:
Day Games: 1
Night Games: 20
Late Games: 3
Off Days: 3
The Brewers haven’t had a Friday off day on the calendar in any regular season since at least 2013, but via a few scheduling quirks, they ended up with three for 2020:
- March 27, the day following the home opener at Miller Park, which many teams reserve as a possible makeup day for their home opener but the Brewers have not typically needed due to the Miller Park roof.
- April 3, the day following the Phillies’ home opener, kept open for the same reason.
- May 29, the second of off days surrounding a three-game series with the Giants on the week of Memorial Day.
The Brewers also have just one Friday day game at Wrigley Field in 2020, down from three in 2019, but have late night Friday games on three separate west coast trips: in Arizona on June 19, in San Diego on July 17 and on September 25 as part of the season’s final weekend in San Francisco.
Saturday:
Day Games: 8
Night Games: 17
Late Games: 2
Off Days: 0
This is roughly the same mix of Saturday day-night contests the Brewers have seen for each of the last three seasons, although some of them could be moved to accommodate national television broadcasts later in the season. As it stands right now, seven of the eight scheduled day games are in the season’s first half, with the Brewers moving nearly exclusively to Saturday night contests after the All-Star break.
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Sunday:
Day Games: 24
Night Games: 3
Late Games: 0
Off Days: 0
After going years without a Sunday Night Baseball appearance, the Brewers have already been selected to participate three times in 2020, including home games against the Cubs on March 29 and the Cardinals on May 3. ESPN still has some Sunday night contests left to select for July, August and September, so the Brewers could see some games moved to that time slot if they remain in contention.
