By Joiner Martinez
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani will open the 2025 MLB season in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs on March 18, and the Oakland Athletics will begin the home portion of their season opener in Sacramento against the Cubs on March 31.
All 30 teams are scheduled to play on March 27, marking the earliest Opening Day outside of international games, Major League Baseball announced Thursday. There were games on March 28 in 2019 and this season.
Each team will play six games against its main interleague rival instead of four, which increases matchups between the New York Yankees and New York Mets, the Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels, the Cubs and Chicago White Sox, and the A’s and San Francisco Giants.
What’s being called a Rivalry Weekend is scheduled for May 16-18 and includes major interleague rivalries along with the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Philadelphia Phillies, Colorado Rockies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers vs. Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros vs. Texas Rangers.
In the third consecutive season of returning to a balanced schedule, a team will play 13 games against each division rival (52 games) and six or seven against each of the other clubs in its league for a total of 62. The remaining 48 games are against interleague opponents, with a single three-game series against each of the other 14 clubs in the opposing league.
The American League used a balanced schedule from 1977 to 2000 and the National League from 1993 to 2000.
The Dodgers and Cubs will play at Tokyo Dome on March 18-19, marking the 25th anniversary of the first MLB regular-season game between the Mets and Cubs in Japan. Other teams that opened in Tokyo included the Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays (2004), the Boston Red Sox and Athletics (2008) and the Seattle Mariners and Athletics (2012, 2019). The Dodgers and San Diego Padres began the 2024 season in Seoul, South Korea.
MLB and the players’ association had intended to play regular-season games in Paris next June but abandoned the plan because they couldn’t find a sponsor. The collective bargaining agreement also called for games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in September 2025, but none were included.
The All-Star Game will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 15 and the regular season ends on September 28.
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