...I guess I can understand not wanting  the PS to spill over into November, but there has to be a way around it...currently there are no scheduled DHs in either league and why they got away from that, I'm not sure but I seem to recall once upon a time several double headers each year that were scheduled ahead of time.
...how about this?;
1...start the season 1-2 days earlier. (no need for so many ST games)
2...Have at least 1 scheduled DHer for each team vs the other teams in their division.(4 DHers) (they play each other 18 times now)
...that's 6 days right there. And I'm sure there are other ways trim it some more.
...EDIT: to make the divisional DHers fair, have each team play a home and away DH vs every team within their division...that's 4 more days...for a total of 10.