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The Blue Jays open the season on the road at Tampa Bay. Their first scheduled home series, against the Washington Nationals on July 29 and 30, will now also be on the road to accommodate infrastructure modifications at Sahlen Field to help it meet Major League Baseball standards and COVID-19 safety requirements. The Blue Jays first game in Buffalo will be either on July 31 against the Philadelphia Phillies or on Aug. 11 against the Miami Marlins. The team had also considered playing home games at its training facility in Dunedin, Florida, but that is among the states that are virus hot spots. Health officials in Canada and Pennsylvania were worried about the frequent travel by players throughout the U.S., one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic. General manager Ross Atkins had said his team had more than five contingency plans for a home stadium. Im excited we finally have to a place to play. Were done with that, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. Slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. expects the Buffalo park to favor pitchers because it is a larger field than the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Its going to be different because of the way it is in Toronto compared to Buffalo, Guerrero said through an interpreter. There are no fans anyway. Were just going to go play baseball. Blue Jays players had made it clear to the front office they wanted to play in a major league park. Outfielder Randal Grichuk had described Buffalo as a worst case. This process has no doubt tested our teams resilience, but our players and staff refuse to make excuses.