For the first time, the Rockies will play every team in the league in a single season.
Major League Baseball released the 2023 schedule for all 30 teams on Wednesday. The upcoming schedule unveils the new format agreed upon in last off-season’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Gone is the weighted schedule that skewed heavily toward games against division opponents. Instead, a new balanced schedule is in place, pitting each team against another at least once during the season.
Some key changes to the new balanced schedule:
- Each team will play 52 games against division opponents (previously 76 games)
- The number of intraleague games decreased from 66 to 64 (32 home games and 32 away games)
- Interleague games increased from 20 to 46
In collaboration with Major League Baseball, the Colorado Rockies announced today the preliminary 162-game schedule for the 2023 Major League Baseball season. pic.twitter.com/wrMTuTVZU1
— Rockies Club Information (@RockiesClubInfo) August 24, 2022
The jump in interleague match-ups is the biggest change to the schedule. Each team will play 14 total series, seven at home and seven on the road, against teams from the opposing league. This will result in 42 of the total interleague contests, with the last four being filled by a home-and-home series against against each teams’ “natural interleague rival”.
This is self explanatory for teams from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, as the intracity rivals will square off in those games. For the Rockies, however, the natural rival is a little less obvious and has been determined to be the Houston Astros.
The Rockies will open the season with a six-game road trip against the San Diego Padres (March 30-April 2) and Los Angeles Dodgers (April 3-4) before hosting the Washington Nationals for Opening Day at Coors Field on April 6. The Opening Day match-up will be part of a seven-game home stand, featuring four games against the Nationals (April 6-9) before a three game series against St. Louis (April 10-12).
Here is the list of American League opponents set to visit Coors Field in 2023:
- Los Angeles Angels (June 23-25)
- Detroit Tigers (June 30-July 2)
- Houston Astros (July 18-19)
- New York Yankees (July 14-16)
- Oakland Athletics (July 28-30)
- Chicago White Sox (August 18-20)
- Toronto Blue Jays (September 1-3)
- Minnesota Twins (September 29-October 1)
The Rockies finish the 2023 regular season with a seven-game home stand (in six days). Their lone scheduled double-header will be against the Dodgers on September 26, resulting in a four-game series against L.A. before a three-game set against Minnesota to conclude the season.
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