New Interleague slate brings clubs to new territory

Shortly after 7 p.m. PT on Tuesday night, a little bit of Interleague history will be made at Angel Stadium and O.co Coliseum.

If the matchups on those fields -- Cardinals at Angels, Cubs at A's -- don't look familiar, it's because they've never happened. The Angels have never played host to the Cardinals in Anaheim, and the A's have never welcomed the Cubs to Oakland.

Those clubs have met before, of course. St. Louis has won five of its nine games against the Halos, but they've all come at home. The Cubs are 4-2 all-time against Oakland, but their trips to the Bay Area have been limited to the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge.

We'll see an equally rare meeting in California next month, when the Rays head west to Dodger Stadium for the first time. The Dodgers and Rays have split six games at Tropicana Field since Tampa Bay's first season in 1998, but that matchup will finally make its way from the Sunshine State to the Golden State for a three-game series Aug. 9-11.

When that series rolls around, we'll be left with only one site-specific pairing that's never come across the schedule: Padres at Blue Jays, SoCal vs. the Great White North. Toronto has played nine games in San Diego, and won five of them, but the Padres have never made the trip to Ontario.

Entering this season, there were nine site-specific matchups that had never taken place in the regular season, excluding those involving the Brewers, who moved to the National League in 1998, and the Nationals, who were the Montreal Expos from 1969-2004.

Five of those previously unseen matchups have already taken place this year: Braves at Royals (June 25-26), Rangers at Cardinals (June 21-23), Twins at Braves (May 20-22) and White Sox at Mets (May 7-8). Half of the remaining four will come off the board Tuesday night.