Twins to host Fourth of July game after swapping 2025 home dates with Rays

It will be the third consecutive year the Twins have hosted a Fourth of July game.

Sep 5, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca (21) runs out an errant throw to Minnesota Twins first baseman Carlos Santana (30) in the third inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

The Twins announced Monday they have made a trade with the Rays...to swap home dates on the schedule for the 2025 season.

We have made the following schedule trade with @RaysBaseball

See you at Target Field 4th of July weekend 🥳 pic.twitter.com/j6cx1YSE6c

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) November 25, 2024

Tampa will now host the Twins for a three-game series May 26-28. Minnesota will get to host the Rays for a three-game series July 4-6, meaning Twins fans can celebrate the Fourth of July at the ballpark. It will be the third straight season the Twins will host a Fourth of July game; they beat the Tigers and Royals on that day over the past two seasons.

Outside of being able to celebrate the holiday at home, the swap also means Twins players will avoid playing outdoors in the July heat and humidity in Florida.

Swapping home dates on a previously-announced schedule isn't a normal occurrence, but this is a result of the catastrophic damage to the Rays' Tropicana Field caused by Hurricane Milton. Due to the damage, the Rays have announced they will play the upcoming season at George M. Steinbrenner Field. It's an 11,000-seat outdoor stadium in Tampa that typically serves as the Yankees' spring training home.

The roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays MLB team, was torn off by Hurricane Milton's powerful winds. Satellite imagery from Maxar shows the destruction on Oct. 10, 2024. Prior to landfall, the stadium was converted into a base camp for emergency responders. / Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Twins-Rays series swap was one of two changes announced by Major League Baseball on Monday. The Rays also swapped home series with the Angels, with the league citing the need to "optimize the number of games played in the best weather conditions given the Rays' transition to an outdoor park" as the basis for the changes.