March 29 start is earliest for MLB

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.

Pittsburgh at Detroit is the lone interleague opener. The AL schedule has Minnesota at Baltimore, the White Sox at Kansas City, the Angels at Oakland, Cleveland at Seattle, Houston at Texas, Boston at Tampa Bay and the Yankees at Toronto.

The NL schedule has Colorado at Arizona, Philadelphia at Atlanta, Washington at Cincinnati, San Francisco at the Dodgers, the Cubs at Miami, St. Louis at the Mets and Milwaukee at San Diego.

Yankees: Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury broke Pete Rose’s major league record by reaching base on catcher’s interference for the 30th time in Monday’s win over the Rays. Ellsbury nicked Wilson Ramos’ mitt on a slow curveball from Jake Odorizzi.

Ellsbury set the season mark with 12 last year and has four this season. He reached the record in 5,308 plate appearances, about onethird of Rose’s 15,890.

Dodgers: The Dodgers lost their 11th straight game for the longest skid since the club moved to Los Angeles, finishing their 8-6 loss to the host Giants at 2:10 a.m. local time Tuesday morning after two rain and lightning delays.

Rockies: Outfielder Charlie Blackmon, with his first-inning double Monday, became the sixth leadoff hitter since 1914 to collect 80 or more extra-base hits in a season.

Rangers: Willie Calhoun, the prized prospect Texas got from the Dodgers in the Yu Darvish trade on July 31, was promoted from Triple-A Round Rock and made his MLB debut Tuesday against Seattle. The utility player hit .300 with 31 homers and 93 RBIs in 128 Triple-A games this summer.

Rays: Right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, coming back from Tommy John surgery in August 2016, struck out two in a hitless inning for Double-A Montgomery on Saturday in the Southern League playoffs. Rays manager Kevin Cash said Eovaldi will next pitch for Triple-A Durham in the playoffs. “He’s a huge part of our season next year,” Cash said.

Royals: Tuesday’s attendance of 17,727 was the smallest for a Kansas City home game this season.