MLB set to open 2014 season in Australia

NEW YORK - Major League Baseball will hold opening day next season in Australia.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks will play a two-game series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on March 22 and 23, baseball’s first regular-season games in Australia.

“It’s going to be fantastic,” Australian-born Dodgers reliever Peter Moylan said Wednesday. “I’ve been trying to preach the game back in Australia for years.”

MLB and the players’ union announced the international opening day just one day after Los Angeles and Arizona mixed it up in a big brawl at Dodger Stadium. The Diamondbacks and Dodgers already had a testy relationship before this scrap that resulted in six ejections.

“I always wanted to go to Australia,” Dodgers slugger Matt Kemp said. “Now I got a real reason to go and I get to play baseball.”

AP