If all goes according to the Detroit Tigers’ plans, the team – and its fans – will have some late nights to finish the regular season. They’ll also have a busy end of July and start of August.
The Tigers’ original Opening Day was already set to leave fans a bit sleepless, with a 10 p.m. start time against the Mariners in Seattle, plus three other games from April 1-3. But the delay in reaching a new collective bargaining agreement meant that opening series in Washington, as well as the second series, a 3-gamer against the Athletics in Oakland, California, (originally set for April 4-7) had to be rescheduled.
Major League Baseball announced the dates for the rescheduled first week of games on Wednesday, as reported by MLB.com’s Jason Beck; the 2022 season was originally slated to end on Oct. 2, but to get in 162 games, MLB moved the finish line to Oct. 5. The four-game series against the Mariners moves to Oct. 3-5, with a doubleheader on Oct. 4 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
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The series against the A’s, though, is trickier, with few trips to the West Coast allowing for an uninterrupted series. So instead, the Tigers will play their three “road” games in two stints in two cities: On May 10, when the A’s were already set to be in Detroit as part of a four-game visit from May 9-12, the Tigers and A’s will play a doubleheader, with the A’s playing as the “home team” in the first game.
A couple months later, the Tigers’ All-Star break will be cut short, as they — or at least one Tiger — will head north from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles to Oakland to start the second half early another doubleheader vs. the A’s on July 21.
That will make for a busy week despite the All-Star break from July 18-20; the Tigers will be off on July 22, presumably to recover from the Pacific time, and then open the second half for real with a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins on July 23. (That’s four games in three days, if you’re keeping score.) That twinbill vs. the Twins also starts one of the Tigers’ longest grinds of the season: three games in two weekend days vs. the Twins, followed by three games in Detroit against the San Diego Padres, then four games in Toronto against the Blue Jays, three in Minnesota and then four at home vs. the Tampa Bay Rays before, finally, a day off on Aug. 8. In all, the Tigers are now scheduled to play 19 games in 18 days in four cities, including 17 straight over 16 days.
The games against the Mariners and Athletics figure to feature two teams at either end of the rebuild cycle. The M’s, who won 90 games last season but just missed out on the playoffs, were active this offseason, signing reigning American League Cy Young winner (and former Tiger) Robbie Ray to a five-year, $115 million contract and trading for 2021 National League All-Star Adam Frazier before December’s lockout. Seattle then picked up 2021 NL All-Star starter Jesse Winker and former Tiger Eugenio Suarez — who hit 31 home runs last season and 49 in 2019 — via trade with the Cincinnati Reds this week. The A’s, meanwhile, won 86 games in 2021 but decided to blow things up this offseason; they traded right-handed starter Chris Bassitt, a 2021 AL All-Star, to the New York Mets for a package of prospects, and then dealt first baseman Matt Olson, also a 2021 AL All-Star, to the Atlanta Braves for another set of prospects.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford. Read more on the Detroit Tigers and sign up for our Tigers newsletter.