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Padres, D-Backs to play 2020 series in Mexico City

JULIO CESAR AGUILAR / AFP / Getty

National League West rivals are heading to the most populous city in North America.

The San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks will play a series in Mexico City next season, team officials confirmed to Jeff Sanders of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

No dates or details have been made official, but it's anticipated that Major League Baseball will make an announcement about the series on Wednesday. The games are expected to be played at El Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, which has hosted the Diablos Rojos del Mexico of the Mexican League since opening in 2019.

The series between the Padres and D-Backs will be the first non-exhibition MLB games to be played in Mexico City, and comes in the wake of successful Mexico Series games earlier this year in Monterrey that featured the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals, as well as the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros.

The Padres have played regular season games in Mexico on three separate occasions, all in Monterrey. In 1996, they played a three-game series against the New York Mets, they returned in 1999 for one game against the Colorado Rockies, and they faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game set last year.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have never played a non-exhibition game there, but had a two-game series against the Rockies during spring training this year.

When Mexico City hosts the games, it will officially become the highest city by altitude to ever host a Major League Baseball contest. Coors Field, the home of the Rockies, sits 1,600 meters above sea level, while Mexico City, at its lowest point is 2,200 meters.

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