NEW YORK — The 2018 Major League Baseball season will begin on March 29, the earliest start in the sport’s history excluding international openers.
All teams will play on opening day for the first time since 1968, the last year before the American and National Leagues split into divisions, the commissioner’s office said Tuesday.
As part of the sport’s new labor contract, each team’s 162 games were scheduled over 186 days, up from 183.
The change was made to create more off days.
Previously, the earliest start except for international games was March 30 in 2003, 2008 and 2014. This will be just the 12th season to start on a Thursday.
Pittsburgh at Detroit is the lone interleague opener. The AL schedule has Minnesota at Baltimore, the Chicago White Sox at Kansas City, the Los Angeles Angels at Oakland, Cleveland at Seattle, Houston at Texas, Boston at Tampa Bay and the New York Yankees at Toronto.
The NL schedule has Colorado at Arizona, Philadelphia at Atlanta, Washington at Cincinnati, San Francisco at the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs at Miami, St. Louis at the New York Mets and Milwaukee at San Diego.
Interleague matchups during the season include the AL East playing the NL East, the AL Central facing the NL Central and the AL West meeting NL West.
The All-Star Game is July 17 in Washington, and the regular season is set to end Sept. 30.
TIGERS: Designated hitter Victor Martinez underwent a successful surgical procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat, and starter Michael Fulmer had season-ending surgery on his elbow Tuesday.
Martinez had a heart ablation on Monday in Detroit, and Manager Brad Ausmus said Tuesday that the five-time All-Star was recovering at home.
“Rest is the first order of business for him right now,” Ausmus said before the Tigers’ game against the Indians.
Martinez has been on the disabled list since Aug. 27 following the second occurrence of an irregular heartbeat this season. He previously was on the DL from June 16-28.
The 38-year-old Martinez had experienced a racing heart during a game last month and was briefly hospitalized.
Martinez, who batted .255 with 10 homers and 47 RBI in 107 games, is signed through next season.
METS: New York recalled catcher Tomas Nido from Double-A Binghamton.
The 23-year-old Nido hit .232 with eight homers and 60 RBI in 102 games with Binghamton. He was selected by New York in the eighth round of the 2012 draft.
The Mets also announced that they had acquired minor league right-hander Eric Hanhold from Milwaukee as the player to be named in the Neil Walker deal. Walker was traded to the Brewers on Aug. 12.
The 23-year-old Hanhold went 8-3 with two saves and a 3.94 ERA in 30 games for Class-A Carolina this year.
He was selected by Milwaukee in the sixth round of the 2015 draft out of the University of Florida.
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