The Yankees and all of MLB released their 2013 schedules this afternoon, which means we finally get a look at how all those very popular year-long interleague games will shake out. Opening day for the Yankees will be April 1st, when they will take on the Boston Red Sox for a three-game set in Yankee Stadium to kick-off the year. The team then only has to wait two weeks before the Arizona Diamondbacks pay a visit to the Bronx for their first taste of the new interleague scheduling.
May 27th through May 30th will be the annual Subway Series against the Mets, with the first two games being played at Citi Field and the last two being held in Yankee Stadium. For people who weren't fans of six games a year vs. the guys from Queens, maybe only four will be an improvement. The Yankees play fourteen games on the road in the month of May, including a trip to Coors Field to take on the Rockies, and fifteen on the road in August. Their longest homestand of the year will be July 5th through the 14th against the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, and Minnesota Twins.
The first West Coast trip begins on June 5th for four games with the Seattle Mariners, three with the Oakland Athletics, and three against the Los Angeles Angels before returning home to host the Dodgers for two games. The Yankees head out to Dodger Stadium for the other end of the home-and-home series on July 30th. Other interleague games of note include taking on the San Diego Padres in PETCO Park to begin the month of August, and a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants at Yankee Stadium on September 20th-22nd before closing the season out on the road against the newest American League team, the Houston Astros.
Aside from the closing series in Houston in September, the farthest the Yankees will have to travel in the month will be to Toronto for three games with the Blue Jays. Not having a full West Coast series to handle that late in the season was one of the better things about the 2012 schedule, and I'm happy that that is once again true for 2013. You can check out the entire schedule on the Yankees' website here. What are your thoughts on how MLB has handled incorporating the interleague match ups into the full schedule instead of just one month?