Blue Jays host Tigers to open 2009 season

The Toronto Blue Jays will begin their 162-game schedule next season by hosting the Detroit Tigers on April 6, and won't face an American League East rival until May.

The Blue Jays will also play 14 road games in the first month compared to 16 this past April.

Toronto's first action against a divisional rival is a home series against Baltimore, May 1-3, and the Jays won't play the rival Yankees until May 12-14.

The New York Mets' Citi Field opener will be April 13, a day earlier than originally planned, and the new ballpark will open with a night game.

At the request of the Mets, San Diego and Major League Baseball agreed to move up the first game to allow Tuesday to be an off-day in the middle of the three-game series. New York wanted to have the Tuesday open in case the opener is postponed by bad weather.

San Diego hosts San Francisco April 12 and will fly from the west coast to the east coast with no day off.

Under its labour contract, MLB is allowed seven west-to-east trips without a day off in each league per season, as long as there is no more than one per club.

But because the Padres won't have an off-day, the April 13 opener cannot start earlier than 7 p.m., according to the collective bargaining agreement.

The new Yankee Stadium opens April 16, with the Yankees playing the Cleveland Indians, probably in a day game.

AL openers, all scheduled for April 6, also have New York at Baltimore, Tampa Bay at Boston, Kansas City at Chicago, Oakland at Los Angeles, Seattle at Minnesota, and Cleveland at Texas.

NL openers scheduled for April 6 include Colorado at Arizona, New York at Cincinnati, Washington at Florida, Chicago at Houston, Atlanta at Philadelphia, Pittsburgh at St. Louis and Los Angeles at San Diego. On April 7, Milwaukee opens at San Francisco.

One of the opening games will be moved to April 5 so that it can be the ESPN Sunday night game.

The regular season is to end Oct. 4. If the current post-season format remains intact, Game 7 of the World Series would be on Nov. 5 — the latest ending ever.

The Red Sox make their first visit to the new Yankee Stadium from May 4-5, then return to the $1.3 billion US ballpark from Aug. 6-9 and Sept. 25-27.

The Mets make their first trip to the new Yankee Stadium from June 12-14, and the Yankees go to Citi Field June 26-28.