San Diego Padres vs. Atlanta Braves: When is Opening Day 2022?

After 99 days that felt like 99 months, Major League Baseball’s lockout of the players is finally over.

Finally, 40-man roster players can report to San Diego Padres facilities this weekend, and Spring Training games begin at the end of next week. The Padres’ first training game will be at the Cincinnati Reds’ facility, Goodyear Ballpark in Arizona.

And despite a tense week in which MLB claimed they were delaying the season (twice), we will be getting a full 162-game slate. Even better, the doubleheaders will be nine innings again, not cheap sevens.

When is San Diego Padres Opening Day 2022?

Opening Day is now Thursday, April 7, and the Padres will stay in Arizona for it, to play their NL West rivals, the Diamondbacks.

After a second road series against the San Francisco Giants, the Padres’ home opener will take place in the evening on Thursday, April 14. They’ll host the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves.

MLB gets rid of the Game 163 tiebreaker to decide postseason entry

Looking ahead to the end of the season, there is a rule change that could impact the Padres, as the NL West is looking uber-competitive once again.

MLB is doing away with the Game 163 do-or-die tiebreaker and replacing it with a more NFL-esque seeding format.

Dating back to the first tie-breaker in 1946, there have been 16 tie-breakers in MLB history, including 12 single games and four series. Prior to the divisional era, which began in 1969, the NL had a best-of-three series to determine which team would advance straight to the World Series.

The Padres made one tie-breaker appearance in franchise history. In 2007, they faced off against the Colorado Rockies to decide which team would get the NL Wild Card, at the time, a single-team format that led straight to the division series. The game was a heartbreaker as well as a tie-breaker, going 13 innings in Denver.

Ultimately, the Rockies emerged victorious, winning 9-8. They’d go all the way to the World Series, where the Boston Red Sox swept them in four games.

Could this veteran free agent solve the San Diego Padres’ Eric Hosmer problem?

Should the San Diego Padres sign veteran free-agent slugger Nelson Cruz when the MLB lockout ends? He'd be a solid complement to Eric Hosmer.