Sawt Falasteen - Padres face Giants in Mexico City's first MLB regular-season games

The National League West division rivals will meet Saturday and Sunday at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú, the 20,576-seat home of the Mexican league's Red Devils.

"It's going to be fun. Going out there and experiencing that in a different country is going to be huge," Padres third baseman Manny Machado said. "It's going to be big for Mexico City, for the whole country as well. We're definitely looking forward to it."

The Padres, based near the US-Mexico border, have big support across the border. They rank third in the NL West on 13-14 with the Giants fourth on 11-13 but only two games behind division leader Arizona.

"It's going to be a different atmosphere. That will be really fun to experience," Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski said.

The Mexico Series is part of MLB's move to play games in major global markets, a push that includes the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals playing two games in June in London.

These games will be the 12th and 13th regular-season games to be played in Mexico but the first to be staged outside of Monterrey.

"Promoting baseball around the world is a good thing," Padres manager Bob Melvin said. "I've been to Japan a couple times and had great times both times I was there. Looking forward to going to another country and promoting our game again."

The Padres will start pitcher Joe Musgrove on Saturday and Japanese hurler Yu Darvish on Sunday.

The Giants, who have never played outside US and Canadian markets until now, will start ex-Padre Sean Manaea on Saturday and Alex Cobb on Sunday.

G.AbuHamad--SF-PST