The San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers will open their 2024 MLB season by playing two games in South Korea, ESPN reported on Sunday.

It will be for the first time the MLB has held a competitive game in South Korea and the eighth time a season openers to happen outside the U.S. and Canada since 1999. These were in Monterrey, Mexico (1999); Tokyo, Japan (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2019); and Sydney, Australia (2014).

Four games have been arranged to be played outside the U.S. this season. The Padres beat the San Francisco Giants twice in Mexico City in April. The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals will play each other twice in London in June.

The Padres and the Dodgers will play the two games in South Korea in 2024 early enough, so they can return to the U.S. in time to begin their regular campaign, according to ESPN.

Infielder Kim Ha-seong of the Padres is from South Korea. In his third season in the major league, he hit 10 runs batted-in with a batting average of .229, an on-base percentage of.331 and a slugging percentage of .362 in 33 games so far in 2023.

The Padres are 18-17 and third in the National League West while the Dodgers lead the division with 21 wins. The Padres signed a series of big deals during the offseason, including an 11-year, $350 million extension with Manny Machado, an 11-year, $280 million contract with free agent Xander Bogaerts and a six-year, $108 million deal with Yu Darvish. They have already surpassed the Dodgers with the third-largest payroll of over $245.8 million among all 30 MLB teams, behind only the New York Mets and the New York Yankees.

The Padres and the Dodgers played each other three times at Petco Park in San Diego, California, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Padres won the first game, but lost the following two.