Major League Baseball plans to start every season-finale game at the same time
In the Royals’ 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox in last year’s season finale, a funny thing happened.
In the fifth inning, manager Ned Yost replaced all nine position players and the team’s designated hitter.
If you recall, the Tigers won their game while the Royals were playing in Chicago, so Yost pulled all his starters because the division crown was out of reach.
That sort of thing won’t be happening this year.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Major League Baseball is planning to start every season-finale game at the same time.
“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,” said MLB Chief Operation Officer Tony Petitti told the Times.
“If we do have games coming down to the wire, we want to make sure we maximize that day.”
Last fall, the Cardinals rested Adam Wainwright after they clinched the N.L. Central when the Pirates lost.
Every game will start at 2 p.m. Central.
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This story was originally published March 20, 2015 at 2:14 AM.