WooSox now set to open Inaugural Season at Polar Park on Tuesday, May 11, at 3:05 p.m.

Baseball’s pandemic precautions will shift opening to May;

Boston Red Sox “Taxi Squad” to Start Working Out in Worcester in April;

WooSox to Open on the Road Tuesday, May 4.

WORCESTER, MA --- Taking new pandemic precautions at the start of the 2021 season, Major League Baseball has shifted the Triple-A schedule to begin in May. The Worcester Red Sox are now scheduled to open their Inaugural Season on the road versus the Buffalo Bisons on Tuesday, May 4, and to make their Polar Park debut on Opening Day, Tuesday, May 11, at 3:05 p.m., the first of a 12-game homestand and a 60-game home season.

The original schedule, released last month, remains intact starting May 4, with the addition of two home games Tuesday and Wednesday, July 13 and 14. Those dates were previously off days during an All-Star Break. The addition of these games gives the WooSox 15 home games in July, the most of any month.

The home season currently still concludes Sunday, September 12. The schedule is still subject to adjustment due to potential future health precautions.

The club will continue to work closely with government leaders and health officials to learn how many fans Polar Park can accommodate for the 12 games of May.

“We are thoroughly supportive of Major League Baseball’s priorities to help ensure the health and safety of everyone in our game and in our community,” said WooSox President Dr. Charles A. Steinberg. “We are brimming with enthusiasm as we anticipate an Inaugural Season that we hope builds and builds with more and more fans and more and more elements of the Polar Park experience.

“We are grateful to the leaders of our game, the leaders of our community, and our WooSox season ticket holders and corporate partners, all of whom have come together with patience, understanding, and cooperation as we seek to safely write this chapter of history in the wonderful world of Worcester.”

“We remain excited for the debut of the Worcester Red Sox and the opening of Polar Park,” City Manager Edward M. Augustus, Jr. said. “This shift in the schedule creates additional time for more people to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, which will make it even safer for fans to gather at this amazing new facility. Additionally, we are hopeful that continued trends in the right direction in terms of the overall number of COVID cases in the City will make it possible for more people to come to the ballpark when it opens in May. I couldn’t be more excited for people to experience the amenities at Polar Park throughout the season, and to enjoy Minor League baseball in the City of Worcester.”

The WooSox will develop plans for season ticket holders and corporate partners and communicate directly with them. The club will also let all fans know if any aspects of the Taxi Squad workouts have a public component. In 2020, such workouts in Pawtucket were closed to the public at that time of the pandemic, but were streamed for fans to enjoy from their homes.

The New York Mets’ Triple-A club from Syracuse will provide the opposition for the first series, May 11 through May 16, followed by Buffalo, the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, starting Tuesday, May 18. The opening 12-game homestand concludes Sunday, May 23.

All series in 2021 are six games, and all start Tuesdays and conclude Sundays. Mondays are off days throughout the year. Weeknight home games begin at 6:35 p.m. (Tuesdays through Fridays), and Saturday afternoon games begin at 4:05 p.m., with Sunday games starting at 1:05 p.m. The exceptions to these times are Opening Day’s special start at 3:05 p.m., July 4th, a special 6:35 p.m. Sunday start followed by fireworks, and two “Camp Days,” Wednesday, July 28 and Wednesday, August 11, both of which start at 12:15 p.m.

The 4:05 p.m. starts on Saturday are designed to help fans enjoy a “Worcester Saturday Night,” in which fans can enjoy the city’s noted restaurant scene and Theater District as the centerpiece of a “Worcester Weekend.”