The 2022 Orioles schedule has been announced

If you’ve had just about enough of watching the 2021 Orioles season, here is a small piece of good news. MLB announced teams 2022 schedules on Wednesday afternoon and that means you can already mark your calendar for next year’s Opening Day. The Orioles open the season in Baltimore for the first time since 2018 with a series against the Blue Jays set to begin on March 31, 2022. It’ll be along before you know it.

The 2022 schedule will see the Orioles facing off against opponents in the National League Central division for the first time since 2017. The O’s will have home games against the Brewers on April 11-13, the Cubs on June 7-8, and the Pirates on August 11-13. The road games against these opponents will be against the Cardinals on May 10-12, Cubs on July 12-13, and Reds on July 29-31.

For the Cardinals series, the O’s will be making their first trip to St. Louis since 2003, which makes this their first visit to the latest incarnation of Busch Stadium that opened in 2006. The Brewers visit to Baltimore will likewise mark their first time in Camden Yards since 2003.

The Orioles home schedule is heavy on holidays. They will be at home on Easter (April 17 vs. Yankees), Mother’s Day (May 8 vs. Royals), Father’s Day/Juneteenth (June 19 vs. Rays), the Fourth of July (vs. Rangers), and Labor Day (September 5 vs. Blue Jays). The last time the Orioles were at home on July 4 was 2008. Has it really been that long? Sheesh.

One reason that the O’s schedule is heavy on holidays is that they’re heavy on home weekend series in general. The O’s announcement of the schedule notes that there are a total of 14 weekend series coming to Camden Yards for only the second time in the stadium’s history. Five of the 14 series will take place against the Yankees and Red Sox.

A big difference between the 2022 schedule and this year’s is that the Orioles will get their first series out of the way against each AL East opponent by April 17. The 2021 schedule was peculiar with the Orioles not facing the Blue Jays until June 18, the 69th game of the season.

The All-Star break is scheduled for July 18-21. The 2022 edition of the game, taking place in a city other than Baltimore as presumed retaliation for the MASN litigation, will be hosted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Perhaps a dream for next year is that the team will play decently enough to have more than one All-Star. I probably shouldn’t get carried away.

May and September will be the months with the most home games, barring any postponements and rescheduled games. There are 16 games each scheduled for those months. April will have the fewest home games, with the O’s playing just ten in Baltimore. Or eleven, if you want to fold in the Opening Day on March 31.

The price for opening the season at home is that the Orioles will play their final six games of the regular season on the road. They’ll play three games in Boston from September 27-29 before wrapping up the season in New York against the Yankees from September 30-October 2.

As of this writing, the 2022 schedule on the Orioles website is a little glitchy - it’s not showing games in the first half of July. O’s broadcaster Melanie Newman has helpfully shared the graphic on her Twitter account if you want to see who and when the Orioles play next year. Game times to be decided much closer to the season.

For now, there are another 56 games to be endured of the 2021 season. At the current Orioles winning percentage, 20 of those games will be fun, so that’s really just another probable 36 losses to get through.