The owner-implemented lockout that spanned almost 100 days largely because of dawdling on the part of the league means that the 162-game regular season for 2022 must be compressed into a tighter schedule. Opening Day, originally slated for March 31, was pushed back to April 7 with the first full slate of 15 games scheduled for April 9. This means that the games originally scheduled for March 31 through April 6 must be worked in elsewhere.
In order to wedge the full 2,430 games into the regular-season calendar, the league has built 31 doubleheaders into the schedule. As well, MLB on Wednesday announced that the final day of the regular season has now been pushed back to Wednesday, Oct. 5. All of that is of course in addition to the shortening of spring training.
Here, then, are the updated matchups that will take place on the final day of the regular season:
Game times have not yet been announced, but in recent years all games on the final day of the regular season have started roughly at the same time. The expanded 12-team postseason would begin shortly after Oct. 5, and it's all but certain that the playoffs will again stretch into the month of October.
