Home MLBBST Game Guides MLB This Week: Will Thursday be Corbin’s day?

MLB This Week: Will Thursday be Corbin’s day?

by Matt Smith

I started writing these weekly MLB ‘early’ game articles back in 2007 and I learned quickly that spending too much time previewing potential pitching match-ups was often unwise.

You get excited about two ace starting pitchers being lined up to face each other in the week ahead, only for a rain-out, injury or general rotation switch-around to come along and make your carefully researched preview count for nothing.

So, all I’m going to write about the early Nationals-Dodgers game on Wednesday (live on BT Sport/ESPN) is that currently, as I type this preview, the Nationals’ starting pitcher would be Stephen Strasburg and the Dodgers’ would be Clayton Kershaw.

It’s the first game of a double-header and previous experience suggests there’s a fair chance Kershaw may get switched to the night-game instead for a larger night-time crowd to see his start. If so, Brandon McCarthy is the likely replacement, whilst if Strasburg gets moved to the night-game then Max Scherzer would be in line to pitch instead. Any which way, it looks like a tough day for the hitters at Dodger Stadium. [EDIT: scrap that: I used ESPN’s schedule and that gets confused when people from outside of the US visit as it tries to convert the time/date. Scherzer-McCarthy is on Tuesday, Strasburg-Kershaw will be the marquee match-up on Wednesday]

Elsewhere, Corey Kluber was impressive in his first start off the DL against the Oakland A’s last Thursday (the A’s hitters didn’t help themselves much, it has to be said) and he’ll look to back that up in an inter-league game at Coors Field against the Rockies. Colorado are in early action again on Friday when they take on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

In between there are four early games on Thursday including a chance to catch the Milwaukee Brewers facing Johnny Cueto and the Giants. Thursday is General Election Day here in the UK and if you’re anything like me you’ll be pleased to have the distraction of baseball that evening rather than sitting through any political coverage.

Coincidentally, the Arizona Diamondbacks are scheduled to have a Corbin (Partick) on the mound. If he gets moved from that scheduled start, or gets hit around badly as the polling stations begin to close, it may be a sign of bad things to come for Labour. Based on the previous General Election and EU Referendum, it likely will give you as much insight as most of the poll predictions will, at least.

All times are in BST.

Monday 5 June

No early games

Tuesday 6 June

No early games

Wednesday 7 June

20:10    Indians at Rockies (Kluber, Freeland)
20:10    Nationals at Dodgers (Strasburg, Kershaw) *BT Sport/ESPN
20:35    Blue Jays at Athletics (Liriano, Triggs) *MLB.com Free Game

Thursday 8 June

17:35    Cardinals at Reds (Leake, Feldman)
18:10    Angels at Tigers (Ramirez, Fulmer)
19:10    Giants at Brewers (Cueto, Garza) *BT Sport/ESPN
20:40    Padres at D-backs (Richard, Corbin)

Friday 9 June

19:20    Rockies at Cubs (Chatwood, Hendricks) *BT Sport/ESPN

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB in the UK comes courtesy of the BT Sport channels and these are highlighted above, as are any games that are available to view online for free via MLB.com. The above list of games just shows those starting before midnight UK time. The full schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

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3 comments

Matty June 6, 2017 - 1:27 pm

Yep, it will be McCarthy V Scherzer. 1-0 to the Nats , seems a lot of dodgers fans not happy with the lineup with many players rested and players out of normal fielding positions , seems Roberts likes to tinker.

Caught the Cubs-Cardinals highlights last night , learnt loads listening to David Ross for 3 hours.

Reply
Matty June 6, 2017 - 6:26 pm

Thought today was wednesday and BT had the game live tonight, getting carried away, must be highlights of game one tonight, game two McCarthy V Scherzer. and the live game must be game 3 with Kershaw.

Reply
Matt Smith June 6, 2017 - 8:20 pm

Yes, looks like Scherzer-McCarthy tonight (Tues). I got caught out by ESPN’s schedule trying to take your location into account and it getting the time/date wrong as a result! Should be a great Gm 3 tomorrow

Reply

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