Astros to play 'home' series vs. Rangers at Tropicana Field in wake of Harvey flooding

ByABC News
August 28, 2017, 4:31 PM

— -- The Astros will play their upcoming home series against the? Rangers?at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, after the teams were unable to agree to a scenario in which this week's games would be played in Arlington, Texas, after flooding in Houston forced the relocation.

Astros president Reid Ryan told Houston reporters that the team had proposed a swap of dates with the Rangers for a series scheduled for Arlington in late September.

"We went to the Rangers and said, 'Hey let's switch series. You guys have our home series,'" Ryan told Houston reporters. "'We'll take your home series.' They rejected that and didn't want to do that. The Rangers wanted us to play the next three days at their place, but they did not want to trade series with us. They wanted all six of our games at their park."

Texas general manager Jon Daniels told reporters in a conference call that the Rangers had concerns for their fans who had bought tickets to the September series. Further, if they made that swap, the Rangers would not be home for the final four series of the season, from Sept. 15 on.

The Rangers offered to play this week's series in Arlington while providing all revenue -- minus expenses -- to the Astros.

Major League Baseball announced the relocation of the three-game series Monday, saying the Astros "will be considered the home team and will bat last."

The Associated Press reported earlier Monday that the Astros' three-game home series against the? Mets, which starts Friday, also will be played at Tropicana Field. But MLB announced that it has not yet determined a location for the Mets-Astros series.

MLB joined with the players' union in donating $1 million to the relief efforts in the Houston area, which is dealing with massive flooding after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast south of the nation's fourth-largest city.

The Astros and Rangers flew to Dallas after their games in California on Sunday to await news of where the series, which starts Tuesday, would be held. They will now head to Florida, where the Astros will host "home" games far away from home, just as they did in the wake of Hurricane Ike in 2008 when they played two scheduled home games in Milwaukee.

If the Astros play both series in Florida, they will end up playing 19 straight games away from Houston, where the AL West leaders last played on Aug. 24. They begin a 10-game road trip after the Mets series.

ESPN's Jerry Crasnick and The Associated Press contributed to this report.