Fox Sports Sun announced Monday that the network will increase its coverage from the standard 150 games to 159 games as part of the Tampa Bay Rays 2018 season.
The other three games will be shown nationally on FS1, while all 162 Rays games will be streamed live via the Fox Sports Go app. Those games will take place on Thursday, June 14, at 7:05 p.m. (vs. New York Yankees), Saturday, June 23, at 4:10 p.m. (vs. New York Yankees) and Saturday, September 1, at 7:10 p.m. (vs. Cleveland).
You can view the schedule of televised games below in its entirety:
Dewayne Staats will lead the broadcast team for the 21st season — his 41st year in broadcasting overall — and will be joined in the booth for the 10th year by former big-league pitcher Brian Anderson, who will provide color commentary.
Rounding out the broadcast team are former big leaguers Orestes Destrade and Doug Waechter, Rich Hollenberg will again host the half-hour Rays Live pre and post-game shows, and Michelle Margaux joins the crew as the lead in-game reporter and host of some Inside the Rays feature shows — of which there will be nine new episodes.
Fox Sports Sun will join the Rays in celebrating their 20th anniversary with in-game features looking back at the previous two decades of (Devil) Rays baseball, also opening the door to former Rays players who will join the broadcast.
We reported last week that this would be the last season of the team’s current deal with Fox, while a new 15-year extension, worth an average of $82-million annually, was close to being finalized. Rays officials denied that a deal was in place, saying instead they are still in talks over a new contract.
Rays trade INF Ryan Schimpf
The Rays traded INF Ryan Schimpf to the Atlanta Braves on Monday for a player to be named later or cash.
Schimpf was designated for assignment on Saturday to make room on the 40-man roster for OF Carlos Gomez.
Schimpf, who was acquired from San Diego in a minor league deal for INF Deion Tansel in December, was projected to make the Rays’ Opening Day roster in a bench depth role. He was one of three southpaw hitters the team acquired during the offseason.
Joey Wendle is still on the roster, while Micah Johnson, who was similarly designated for assignment but cleared waivers and stayed in camp on a minor-league deal.
As Marc Topkin (Tampa Bay Times) writes, the Rays also have right-handed hitting Daniel Robertson in the mix, and could move Brad Miller back to second since they also have since acquired 1B C.J. Cron.