The Seattle Mariners open the 2018 season with a matchup against the Cleveland Indians at Safeco Field on Thursday, March 29, according to the tentative regular season schedule released today. Start time is tentatively set for 7:10 p.m.
As announced by Major League Baseball earlier today, all MLB teams will open on the same day. The last time that happened was April 10, 1968.
After an off-day on Friday, the Mariners season-opening series with the Indians resumes on Saturday, March 31, and wraps up on Sunday, April 1.
Interleague play in 2018 matches the American League West with the National League West, and the Mariners first road trip starts with a two-game set on April 3-4 in San Francisco against the Giants, followed by three games in Minnesota against the Twins and three in Kansas City against the Royals.
The Mariners return to Safeco Field on Friday, April 13 for a seven-game homestand against the Oakland Athletics (April 13-15) and Houston Astros (April 16-19).
Of the 19 home games in the month of May, 12 are against A.L. West rivals (A's, Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers), plus four games against the Detroit Tigers (May 17-20) and three against the Minnesota Twins (May 25-27).
The first two interleague series at home are in July with a weekend matchup with the Colorado Rockies (July 6-8) and a brief two-game set against the San Francisco Giants (July 24-25). The Los Angeles Dodgers come to town for a three-game weekend series on August 17-19 and the San Diego Padres will be at Safeco Field for two games on September 11-12.
The Boston Red Sox are scheduled for a four-game series the weekend of June 14-17, and the New York Yankees come to town for three games over the weekend of September 7-9.
The Mariners will be home for the three major summer holidays: Memorial Day, May 28 vs. Rangers; July 4 vs. Angels; and Labor Day, September 3 vs. Baltimore Orioles.
The Mariners end the season with 19 games against the A.L. West including a 10-game road trip against the Angels, Astros and Rangers, September 13-23, followed by the final homestand, September 24-30, against the A's and Rangers.
The Mariners tentative 2018 schedule, with home start times, is available now on Mariners.com. The complete 2018 MLB tentative schedule of all 30 teams is now available on MLB.com.
Start times for Mariners road games will be released later. The schedule is considered tentative and subject to change until it is finalized in January 2018.
Schedule Notes of Interest
The 2018 regular season opens four days earlier than in the past, spreading the schedule over 27 weekends (162 games over 186 days) and, as a result, includes additional off days. The Mariners are home for 14 of the 27 weekends.
Same Day Season Opener*
The last time all MLB teams opened on the same day was on Wednesday, April 10, 1968, when all 20 teams then in existence played in games that day.
Thursday Season Opener*
The last regular season to begin on a Thursday was in 2011, when Opening Day was March 31. Prior to that, the last regular season to begin on a Thursday was in 1976, when Opening Day was April 8. In addition to 2011 and 1976, the only other seasons to have started on a Thursday were in the following years: 1901-1904, 1907, 1912, 1959 and 1973-74.
*Source, MLB Public Relations.