Baseball Notes: Adding drama to season's final day

Fans at Camden Yards, Dodger Stadium, and Safeco Field might need to bring a few extra screens to the ballpark on the final day of the season.

Major League Baseball is tweaking this year's schedule, hoping to create a huge playoff scramble by starting all 15 games on Oct. 4 at virtually the same time.

Besides adding drama, it might make for tough choices.

If the Mariners hold a one-game lead over Toronto for the second AL wild-card spot, do they start Felix Hernandez at home vs. Oakland or hold him for the playoff opener? They won't be able to wait to see how the Blue Jays do at Tampa Bay.

Another result - split attention spans. Try watching the field, the scoreboard, a smartphone, and another mobile device, all at once.

MLB chief operating officer Tony Petitti said every game will begin shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern time. The plan, the latest innovation under new commissioner Rob Manfred, was spurred by the last-day chase in 2011, when four teams dueled for two wild-card spots.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester will miss his scheduled start Saturday because of arm fatigue.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Friday that Lester "is just going through a little bit of a dead-arm period." Lester, who signed a $155 million, six-year contract during the offseason, is not experiencing pain, according to Maddon, and has gone through similar periods in previous spring trainings.

Alex Rodriguez hit his second spring training home run and Adam Warren allowed one run over five innings, leading the New York Yankees over the Detroit Tigers, 11-2, in Lakeland, Fla.

Rodriguez was in a 1-for-14 slide before his opposite-field homer to right off Bruce Rondon.

Meanwhile, a cousin of Rodriguez's is scheduled to plead guilty to drug charges, the last defendant whose case is pending in the federal government's Biogenesis of America investigation.

New court documents show that Yuri Sucart will change his plea at a hearing next Friday.