MLB has "scheduled every game on the final day of the regular season to start at the same time" this season in an effort to "amplify the drama," according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. All games on Oct. 4 will start at 3:00pm ET, setting up what "could be the ultimate day of scoreboard watching." MLB COO Tony Petitti said, "If a game impacts another game, they're all occurring at the same time, so no team would be put into a lame-duck situation because their fate already had been decided by an earlier result." Shaikin notes the "impact could extend beyond the teams directly competing for a playoff berth." When the Pirates lost on the final day of last season, the Cardinals clinched the NL Central, and "promptly scratched" P Adam Wainwright, and "saved him for Game 1" of the division series against the Dodgers (L.A. TIMES, 3/20).
SPRING FLING: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday said that MLB is "likely to play an exhibition game in Cuba" next year. The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Brian Costa reports the league "has been in talks with the U.S. government about returning to the baseball-rich island" for the first time since the Orioles played a pair of games there in '99, but "previously had no timetable for doing so." It "remains unclear whether there will be just one or multiple games." An exhibition game in Cuba "would represent the first step toward what MLB hopes will be an expanded presence there" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/20).
