NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball will officially open its 2022 season on March 31, provided there's no work stoppage. It will also try to make every team play their first game on the same day, for the first time since 1968.Wednesday's schedule was released by the league. The NL openers include the Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies at Los Angeles Dodgers. Atlanta Braves will host the Atlanta Braves. Arizona Diamondbacks will play at Milwaukee Brewers. Washington Nationals will be at the New York Mets. St. Louis Cardinals take on Pittsburgh Pirates. San Francisco Giants will take on the San Diego Padres.AL openers will feature the Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays @ Boston Red Sox. The Minnesota Twins are at the Chicago White Sox. The Los Angeles Angels are at Oakland Athletics. The Detroit Tigers are at Seattle Mariners. The New York Yankees is at Texas Rangers.The Philadelphia Phillies will be playing the Houston Astros in the interleague opener.Dec. 1 is the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement between MLB & the players' union. A lockout or strike seems possible due to the bitter relationship between the parties. Since the 1994-95 strike that saw a seven-month strike which resulted in the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years, baseball has not experienced a work stoppage.MLB attempted for three consecutive seasons to have all 30 teams play on the same Opening Day. This was unsuccessful for three of four seasons. In 2018, it rained out Pittsburgh at Detroit, Washington at Cincinnati, and Washington at Washington.With a series in Tokyo, Seattle and Oakland were ahead of all other teams for 2019, with the first game being played in 2019. Due to the pandemic, the start of the 2020 season was delayed until July 23, and the Yankees played Washington on the opening night.MLB failed to make it this year. The Mets' game at Washington, a premier pitching matchup between Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, was delayed by a COVID-19 epidemic. Rain threatened to cause the Baltimore game against Boston to be postponed.The home openers for teams that are on the road will be held April 4th, when the Royals host their White Sox counterparts, and the Rays host their Blue Jays counterparts, while the Rays host them, the Blue Jays host them, the Rays host them, and the Cubs host our Cardinals counterparts. The Nationals host our Phillies counterparts.April 7 home openers will see the Red Sox host the Yankees, the Angels host The Astros, and the Twins host both the Mariners. The Diamondbacks will host the Padres, while the Cardinals will host the Pirates. The Braves will host the Reds.The remaining home openers will be April 8 with the Tigers at home against White Sox, Rays at home against Orioles and Phillies at home against Athletics. Also, the Rockies are at home against Dodgers. And the Giants against the Marlins.Interleague play includes the AL East vs. NL Central and AL Central vs. NL West, as well as AL West vs. NL East. The Cubs will play at Yankee Stadium June 10-12, while the Red Sox will be at Wrigley Field July 1 through 3.The Mets will host the Yankees to commemorate the 20th anniversary the September 11 terrorist attacks.Jackie Robinson Day is a Friday and every team will be playing on it.The original schedule includes a doubleheader on a day, with the Tigers hosting the Twins on July 23.The All-Star Game will take place at Dodger Stadium July 19, marking its most recent date since 1981 when it was held on Aug. 9, following a strike by players. The Dodger Stadium was originally scheduled to host the 2020 All-Star Game, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic.On July 21, at the beginning of the second half, the only game is the Dodgers hosting Giants.The regular season will end in October 2.
