Detroit Tigers Announce Changes to Their 2026 Home Schedule
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The only constant in this 2026 Detroit Tigers season, it seems, has been change. From roster moves to injuries to potential blockbuster trades on the horizon, a bumpy campaign in Motown has not exactly gone according to plan.
It's fitting, then, that change has even extended to the Tigers' home schedule. On Tuesday, the club announced on X that they were moving the start times of two upcoming home games at Comerica Park "in an effort to help fans avoid heavy traffic and road closures as they travel to and from the ballpark."
Tigers Announce Game Time Changes
Due to overlapping major events in downtown Detroit, we have adjusted first pitch times for two upcoming Tigers games ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/yweUzB9nU6
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) June 16, 2026
On Monday, June 22, Detroit's series-opening clash with the New York Yankees has been moved back from 6:40 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. This was done to avoid any potential overlap with the annual Ford Fireworks event taking place downtown that night.
Looking further ahead, the Tigers moved a late-season Sunday, Sept. 13 showdown with the Colorado Rockies up by 90 minutes - from a 1:40 p.m. first pitch to 12:10 p.m. The change is designed to create at least a little bit of space between the baseball game and the Detroit Lions' season-opening game against the New Orleans Saints at 1:00 p.m at nearby Ford Field.
Plenty could change for the franchise between now and Sept. 13, but it was important to tweak the schedule given the location of Comerica Park amidst Detroit's busy downtown hub. Apart from being steps from Ford Field, the stadium sits amidst a bustling area of shops, restaurants, bars and live entertainment venues, as well as Little Caesars Arena, home of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and the NBA's Detroit Pistons.
To be fair, September game times are probably not high on the list of concerns for Tigers fans right now.
At 30-43 and nine games back of the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central, Detroit is inching closer and closer to the looming reality that 2026 could ultimately prove to be a lost season after the club opened the year with World Series aspirations. Tarik Skubal is back on the mound, but his future stands as a source of major uncertainty as a pending unrestricted free agent who is already the subject of widespread trade rumors.
So when the Tigers do eventually take the field on Sept. 13 (at 12:10 p.m.) before the Lions' opener, it remains to be seen what the team actually looks like after the August 3 trade deadline.
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Ben Fisher is a long-time sportswriter and baseball lover, dating back to 2008, when he was a member of the media relations team for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has covered a wide range of sports for a seemingly endless array of publications, including The Canadian Press, Fansided and The Hockey Writers. When he isn't writing about sports, he can be found coaching his equally baseball-obsessed sons' Little League teams.