Marlins announce 2019 regular season schedule

Major League Baseball revealed its 2019 regular season schedule on Wednesday and Marlins fans should be fairly satisfied with it.

Many of the scheduling rules you’ve grown accustomed to still apply: 76 of 162 games against NL East rivals, home/away matchups with the other 10 National League teams, series of typically three games apiece with occasional two-gamers and four-gamers, etc.

Can the Marlins improve their hitting enough to move out of last place in the division?

Here are some specifics you may find important:

• All of Major League Baseball takes the field for Opening Day on March 28 as the Marlins host the Rockies.
• Saturday start times for home games have changed. First pitch was usually 7:10 p.m. ET in 2018, but the default for next season will be 6:10 p.m. with several 4:10 p.m. starts sprinkled in.
• Aside from the annual “Citrus Series” against the Rays, the Marlins’ interleague opponents are AL Central teams. The Indians, Twins and Royals each come to town for a visit.
• The All-Star break begins on July 8, close to the true midpoint of the season. This club will have played a maximum of 87 games in the “first half” (potentially fewer than that depending on postponements).
• Lots of Monday off days (nearly every other week), so tough luck if you like for baseball to distract you from work/school stress.
• Remarkably, none of the road trips cover more than two cities or more than seven total games. The roughest stretch from a travel standpoint comes at the very end of the schedule when they’ll play 13 of the final 16 games away from Miami with 26 games in 27 days overall. That could be a big talking point if, miraculously, the Fish are still in postseason contention down the stretch.

Also, during Wednesday’s Marlins-Yankees game broadcast on FOX Sports Florida, president of business operations Chip Bowers tried to sell you on new, exciting experiences coming to the ballpark, and how to get the best value for them.

For your convenience, the 2019 schedule is presented below in a couple different formats...