This working week’s schedule of early MLB games is a little unusual.
We have a game each on Monday and Friday, typically days of the week where you only occasionally see day-games being played, whilst we come up empty on the most popular weekday for daytime baseball over the last two seasons, Wednesday.
This is in part due to the time of year. Â Monday’s game from the heart of the AL Central division battle is an example of teams needing to squeeze games in as the regular season draws to a close, while it’s probably the case that some games that could have been moved to the daytime on Wednesday are being played in the evening to allow as many fans as possible the chance to come out and support their team at this crucial part of the year.
All times are in BST.
Monday 17 September
19.10. Detroit at Chicago White Sox (Fister – Quintana)
Tuesday 18 September
No early games
Wednesday 19 September
No early games
Thursday 20 September
17.05. Minnesota at Cleveland (Vasquez – Kluber)
18.05. Oakland at Detroit (Milone – Sanchez) *ESPN America
18.45. Houston at St. Louis (Norris – Kelly)
19.20. Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (Arroyo – Berken)
20.40. San Diego at Arizona (Richard – Skaggs)
20.45. Colorado at San Francisco (Pomeranz – Zito)
21.05. Milwaukee at Pittsburgh (Fiers – Rodriguez)
Friday 21 September
19.20. St. Louis at Chicago Cubs (Carpenter – Volstad) *ESPN America
MLB isn’t the only important baseball being played this week. The World Baseball Classic qualifier groups 1 and 2 are taking place in Florida and Germany respectively. There’s still no official word on any TV coverage of the Group 2 games, which includes Team GB, and that suggests we’ll be out of luck; however the MLB.com Media Center guide does include some WBC qualifiers on the list, including Great Britain’s game on Thursday against Canada, so it’s possible they will be available to watch online.
All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com. The early games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above, while the full ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website. BBC 5 Live Sports Extra can be found on digital radio, digital TV and on the BBC.co.uk website (coverage on the website is only available to UK residents). The complete schedule for this week’s MLB games can be found on MLB.com.
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Various updates ….
Firstly, the official WBC Twitter feed has stated that all qualifiers will be on MLB.com, so the group of early MLB games on Thursday will probably be pushed to one side for most of us while the Team GB v Canada game is on from 18.00.
Secondly, the rainouts on Tuesday evening mean that there will now be two early games on Wednesday. They are:
18.05. Toronto at NY Yankees (Alvarez – Pettitte)
21.05. LA Dodgers at Washington (Harang – Zimmermann)
And thirdly, Chris Carpenter will make his long-awaited season debut on Friday in the Cardinals’ early game against the Cubs. He replaces Jaime Garcia as the Cards’ starter and I’ve updated the post above accordingly.