This week’s early MLB games: The final week

All good things must come to an end.  It’s the final week of the 2010 regular season and that means there are only a few more days to enjoy the 14/15 games-per-day marathon that MLB produces. 

As teams only have a handful of home games left to bring in the crowds, the majority of the games are being played during the evening in the States.   However, there are six ‘early’ games to enjoy this week and they include some contests that could have a bearing on the playoff race in the National League.

The Colorado Rockies and Atlanta Braves are both in day-game action on Wednesday.  Colorado are the outsiders heading into this final week and they need to go on another of their patented winning runs to leapfrog their way into the Wild Card spot.  The Braves are desperately hoping to hold onto that prize and a home series against Florida gives them an opportunity to do just that.

On Thursday, the top two teams in the NL West are in action.  Tim Lincecum is scheduled to take the mound for the Giants against the D-Backs, while Jon Garland should make the start for the Padres against the Cubs in a game that sneaks into our ‘before midnight UK time’ bracket.

All times are in BST.

Monday 27 September

No early games

Tuesday 28 September

No early games

Wednesday 29 September

18.40. Pittsburgh at St. Louis (James McDonald – P.J. Walters)
19.05. Seattle at Texas (Jason Vargas – Tommy Hunter)
20.10. LA Dodgers at Colorado (Clayton Kershaw – Jhoulys Chacin)
20.35. Oakland at LA Angels (Bobby Cramer – Joel Pineiro)
20.05. Detroit at Cleveland (Max Scherzer – Mitch Talbot)*
20.10. Milwaukee at New York Mets (Yovani Gallardo – R.A. Dickey)*
21.35. Florida at Atlanta (Andrew Miller – Derek Lowe)

Thursday 30 September

20.45. Arizona at San Francisco (Barry Enright – Tim Lincecum)
23.35. Chicago Cubs at San Diego (Tom Gorzelanny – Jon Garland)

Friday 1 October

No early games
21.35. Detroit at Baltimore (Jeremy Bonderman – Chris Tillman) **

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* 29 Sept. update: due to postponements, we’ve now got two additional day games on Wednesday.

** 1 October update: we now have a day-game on Friday as the Tigers and Orioles make up a rain-out with a double-header

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America’s MLB schedule can be found here. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com