I’ve never liked interleague play in Major League Baseball. This year, I like it even less.

For years, I’ve been saying that there are too many interleague games in baseball. Each year, exciting playoff races are put on hold for a full two weeks as the leagues square off, with each American League playing 18 games against their National League foes.

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The quirks of interleague play will effectively limit David Ortiz to one at-bat a game for nearly two weeks. The Associated Press

Because of this heavy slate of interleague games, teams are stuck with strange scheduling quirks.

The Red Sox have already played in five different four-game series this year. To make this all work, we’ve seen more two-game series than ever before. The Sox had four of them on the schedule this year.

One of those two-game sets is in August, part of a ridiculous two-week stretch for Boston. On Aug. 8, the Sox begin a three-game series in Minnesota.

From there, they will head to Seattle. They return home after the game on Aug. 14, and after an off-day welcome the Rays to town. For two days.

Then, immediately following the game on Aug. 17, they leave the time zone once again for two four-game series – in Kansas City and Texas.

The team will be home for approximately 60 hours. And, because of a rain*out back in April, the Sox and Rays will actually cram three games into that two-day span.

Then, when the teams play in a National League ballpark, there is no designated hitter allowed. This week that means the Sox must play without David Ortiz, a man hitting .311 with a team-leading 17 home runs this season.

To make matters worse, the schedulers lined up all nine interleague road games in an 11-day span that began Friday night.

That means Ortiz could go nearly two weeks without playing a full game. One pinch hit a night will have to suffice.

Sox Manager Terry Francona wants to get Ortiz in the lineup so badly he considered playing Adrian Gonzalez in the outfield.

It’s not a place Gonzalez is especially comfortable, and there is always a risk the man with a seven-year, $154 million contract would get hurt.

Which is why he was back at first base Sunday. In the end, Francona decided he didn’t want to risk an injury, so he kept Ortiz on the bench for all three games in Pittsburgh. Big Papi got a pinch-hit appearance in each game, going 0 for 2 with a walk.

Finally, there is talk of interleague play being altered by Major League Baseball.

Collective bargaining negotiations are underway, and changing the number of games the leagues play against each other is up for discussion.

Cutting back at least two series would be a good step, although I’d rather see interleague become a six-game, two-series setup with each team playing one series at home and another on the road.

Baseball is also considering realigning the two leagues, with one NL team moving to the AL so that each league would have 15 teams.

That would even up the two leagues, but with an odd number of teams in each you’d need to make interleague something that lasts through the year.

There would essentially need to be an interleague game every night. Which means even more of a bad thing.

Do you want your team finishing the regular season with a game against a team from the other league while it’s trying to nail down a playoff spot?

There’s no doubt there will be significant changes in the game at this time next year.

Look for an added round of playoffs with one more team from each league making the postseason.

And look for an adjustment in interleague play.

Let’s just hope that adjustment is fewer games, not more.

Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on the New England Sports Network. His column appears in the Press Herald on Tuesdays.

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