Major league baseball schedule for 2013 has new wrinkles

After two years of tinkering with tradition, Major League Baseball next year will revert to opening its season on Monday and closing it on Sunday.

However, in the first season in which interleague play is scheduled each day, the Angels are set to open with an interleague game — at Cincinnati on Monday, April 1.

The Angels and Dodgers — and other geographic rivals — are set for four games rather than six next season, none of them on a weekend. The Angels and Dodgers are scheduled to play at Dodger Stadium on Monday, May 27, and Tuesday, May 28, then play at Angel Stadium on Wednesday, May 29, and Thursday, May 30.

The regular season will end Sunday, Sept. 29. The schedule information has been distributed to teams but not released publicly, and until then dates are subject to change.

After a 2009 postseason in which the Angels played nine games in 21 days and the Philadelphia Phillies played nine games in 23 days, MLB condensed the playoff schedule by moving the start and finish of the regular season to midweek. That change, introduced last year and in effect this year, essentially cut three days from the end of the season to the start of the World Series.

The restoration of those days comfortably allows for tiebreakers, the new wild-card playoff game and an extra day in the division series.

For the first time, each league will have 15 teams, necessitating at least one interleague game each day. With five teams in each division, every team will play its traditional interleague rival plus all five teams from another division.

The American League West is set to face the National League Central, with the Angels playing a home-and-home series with the Chicago Cubs, a home series with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals and a road series with the Reds and Milwaukee Brewers.

The NL West is set to face the AL East, with the Dodgers playing a home-and-home series with the New York Yankees, a home series with the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays and a road series with the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays.

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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