It’s Opening Day in Major League Baseball! Sports Director Dave Collins offers up his predictions for the 2018 season before first pitch this morning. Enjoy the season fans!

NL Wildcards AL Wildcards 

 1. Rockies 1. Red Sox

 2. Mets 2. Twins

 NLDS ALDS 

 1. Dodgers over Rockies 1. Yankees over Red Sox

 2. Cubs over Nationals 2. Astros over Indians </s> MLB opening day 2018 is here, featuring the first full slate of opening games in 50 years. March 29 is the earliest season starting date in the league's history. The previous earliest date was set back in 2003 on March 30, according to MLB.com. </s> Play Ball! Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is here, kicking off the 2018 season. From the World Series champion Houston Astros to the New York Yankees, find out when your favorite team will hit the field.

It’s the earliest Opening Day in Major League Baseball history. Practically every single team will be in action on March 29, kicking off the 2018 baseball season with a bang. Initially, all 30 teams were going to be in action, but the match between the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds has been pushed to Friday, March 30 due to inclement weather. Still, there will be plenty of baseball to go around.

So, why is there baseball in March? It’s all due to the most recent Collective Bargaining agreement. Starting in 2018, the regular season has been expanded to provide four additional off-days for players, according to Forbes. Instead of expanding the season further into the year, it was decided to kick things off sooner. Ergo, baseball in March. Hey, giving players more time to rest and recuperate is great.

This was supposed to be the first time since 1968 that every team celebrated its Opening Day on the same date. Then, the Red/Nationals had to go and ruin it. Oh well. That 50-year-old record will stand until next season. As for the early picks as to who will win the Worlds Series, the experts over at CBS Sports are evenly split: two think the Chicago Cubs will win, while two others think it is the Nationals’ year. One expert, Dayn Perry, has faith the Cleveland Indians will come through. Will they be right, or will the New York Yankees (who acquired Giancarlo Stanton) prove too strong for everyone else in the MLB?

Here’s the Opening Day schedule for all 30 teams (courtesy of USA Today.)

Chicago Cubs at Miami Marlins, Thursday, March 29, 12:30 p.m.

Detroit Tigers at Pittsburgh Pirates, Thursday, March 29, 1:10 p.m.

St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets, Thursday, March 29, 1:10 p.m.

Minnesota Twins at Baltimore Orioles, Thursday, March 29, 3:05 p.m.

Houston Astros at Texas Rangers, Thursday, March 29, 3:30 p.m.

New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays, Thursday, March 29, 3:37 p.m.

Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays, Thursday, March 29, 4:00 p.m

Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Athletics, Thursday, March 29, 4:05 p.m.

Milwaukee Brewers at San Diego Padres, Thursday, March 29, 4:10 p.m.

Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta Braves, Thursday, March 29, 4:10 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals, Thursday, March 29, 4:15 p.m.

San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers, Thursday, March 29, 7:00 p.m

Cleveland Indians at Seattle Mariners, Thursday, March 29, 10:00 p.m.

Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks, Thursday, March 29, 10:10 p.m.

Washington Nationals at Cincinnati Reds, Friday, March 30, 4:10 p.m.

Play ball! </s> The Major League Baseball season opens Thursday. Essentially, the 10 teams to beat are the same group that made the playoffs last year when the Astros defeated the Dodgers in a thrilling seven-game World Series.

The Astros, Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox are at the of the top of the class because they all improved with their moves in the offseason. The Indians, Nationals and Dodgers all lost key players and are a notch below, in my humble opinion.

Six of these seven teams will be the division winners. The Wild Card races are mostly wide open.

I’m picking the 2016 World Series-winning Cubs to come back and defeat the defending-champion Astros in another epic Fall Classic.

Of course, there will be outliers, there always are. Last year, they were the D-backs in the National League and the Twins in the American League.

The D-backs flipped from a 93-loss season in 2016 to 93 wins and a Wild Card berth. The Twins were so out of it management actually shed pitching at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. They then came on like gangbusters, securing the American League’s second Wild Card spot, and ultimately losing that game to the Yankees.

My 2018 outliers are the Phillies in the NL and the Angels in the AL. Both teams are progressing and made big acquisitions since the end of last season. The Phillies penned Carlos Santana as a free agent and just signed right-hander Jake Arrieta, adding the former Cy Young Award-winner to a cast of young players headed now by first-year manager Gabe Kapler. </s> ATLANTA — ATLANTA – The Atlanta Braves are off to a rough start, but it’s a long baseball season.

In fact, it’s such a long season that if you buy peanuts and crackerjacks at every Braves game this season, home and away, your food bill would be around $1,600.

Major League Baseball teams play 162 regular season games. That’s twice as long as an NBA season and ten times longer than an NFL season.

Baseball historians tells us the number of games fluctuated until 1920, when Major League Baseball decided to lock down a consistent schedule. There were eighteen teams at the time divided into two divisions.

Baseball decided it would work for each team to play its seven division rivals twenty-two times each for a 154 game schedule. Since baseball is a more slow paced, non-contact sport, players could endure a season of that length.

In 1961, Major League Baseball started adding teams. To continue playing each division rival twenty-two times would mean playing nearly two-hundred games.

“Owners ultimately put a stop to the 22 game format and settled on 162 games,” says baseball historian John Thorn.

The league agreed on eighteen games per rival and set the season at 162 games.

There have been more teams added since then and more adjustments to keep the number at 162. Any longer and the World Series will compete with Thanksgiving.

Some Major League players have complained that the season is already too long and leads to fatigue and injury. But so far, the tradition of a 162 game season has held for over fifty years. </s> The Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics announced their lineups for the first Major League Baseball game of the season, which is being played in Japan.

The game early Wednesday morning at the Toyko Dome will feature former Japanese star Ichiro Suzuki in the Mariners starting lineup.

Suzuki, 45, is batting ninth in a game that will start at 5:30 a.m. EDT

"We're just happy to be along for the ride," A's pitcher Liam Hendriks said. "I can't wait for the opening series when they announce Ichiro and hear that crowd."

The Mariners and A's will play two games in Japan. The rest of MLB teams open on March 28.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

New York: Yankees' Dellin Betances to start season on injured list amid velocity concerns </s> A look at what’s happening around the majors today:

San Francisco holds a one-game lead over St. Louis for the last NL playoff spot going into the final day of the regular season. Matt Moore starts at home for the Giants vs. the Dodgers, and a win gives them the second NL wild-card slot. In St. Louis, Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals need to beat Pittsburgh and hope for a Giants loss to force a one-game tiebreaker.

Baltimore, Toronto and Detroit all have a chance to win an AL wild-card berth going into the last day.

Adding to the final-day drama: Every game in the majors is scheduled to start within 10 minutes of each other.

Famed announcer Vin Scully calls his last game when the Los Angeles Dodgers wrap up the regular season in San Francisco. The 88-year-old Scully began doing Dodgers game in 1950 when he joined Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn radio and television booth. The Giants plan to simulcast his call of the third inning on their TV and radio affiliates.

The Atlanta Braves play their final game at Turner Field, called “the Ted” by fans in a nod to past owner Ted Turner. Chipper Jones got the first hit when the former Centennial Olympic Stadium opened for big league baseball in 1997. We’ll see who gets the last hit when Detroit visits Atlanta in the finale. Next year, the Braves will play in the suburbs at SunTrust Park.

Mark Teixeira will be honored with a pregame ceremony before winding up his big league career when the Yankees host Baltimore. A three-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove first baseman, the 36-year-old has hit over 400 home runs with Texas, Atlanta, the Angels and Yankees. Popular with teammates and fans, Teixeira was among the most durable players in the majors until injuries took their toll in recent seasons.

David Ortiz, Ryan Howard and Matt Holliday will likely play for the last time in the regular season in the uniforms they’ve worn for so long. Ortiz is retiring after this year with the AL East champion Red Sox, the Phillies aren’t expected to bring back Howard and the Cardinals plan to buy out Holliday. All three stars are expected to get big ovations from home fans.

Several front-line starters around the majors will be prepping for their postseason assignments. David Price (17-9) pitches for AL East champion Boston against Toronto, while Kenta Maeda (16-10) goes for the Dodgers in San Francisco. Meanwhile, right-handers Kyle Hendricks (16-8, 1.99 ERA) of the Cubs and Max Scherzer of the Nationals (19-7, 2.82, MLB-best 277 strikeouts) make their closing arguments for the NL Cy Young Award.

In what will be Washington’s first — and last — entirely meaningless game of 2016, Max Scherzer is eyeing his second 20-win season and an NL Cy Young Award to add to the 2013 AL honor he won for Detroit while going 21-3. “That’s been the pinnacle for pitchers ever since I was in the game — and long before me. It would be forever: ‘He’s a 20-game winner,'” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. Expounding on how he views pitchers’ stats, Baker said: “People put a lot of emphasis on ERA, which is good, but I put emphasis on wins for a guy that knows how to win, whether it’s 7-6 or whether it’s 2-1. Certain guys know how to win.”

In Tampa Bay’s finale at Texas, 27-year-old righty Chase Whitley is set to extend the Rays’ majors-leading streak of 398 straight starts by a pitcher under 30. Whitley hasn’t started a big league game since having Tommy John surgery in early 2015.

Versatile veteran Martin Prado is getting a new role with Miami for the final day of the regular season — player-manager . Prado will play third base and take managerial duties from Don Mattingly in the finale against Washington, something the Marlins can do because the game has no meaning to either team. Other players will fill the role of pitching and hitting coaches, though those appointments were yet to be made as of Saturday night. “He’s got have his crew,” though, Mattingly said. </s> League play set to start for baseball and softball </s> The Boston Red Sox lost their first game of the regular season. After that, nearly everything went their way.

They were the best team in baseball throughout the regular season and they completed a thrilling run through the postseason to capture the franchise’s ninth World Series title when they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-1, in a decisive Game 5 on Sunday.

A matchup of dominant left-handed starters — both of whom had often struggled in the postseason — looked like it would be decided by the bullpens when both teams put runs on the scoreboard in the first inning. But both David Price and Clayton Kershaw showed some of their best stuff when the lights were at their brightest, settling down into a pitchers’ duel at Dodger Stadium.

[Get the best of The New York Times sports coverage delivered to your inbox. Sign up here.]

Price, who had never won a postseason game as a starter coming into this season, was simply better.
The 2018 Major League Baseball season begins.