Home MLBBST Game Guides MLB this weekend: plenty on ESPN America, A’s-Phillies on BBC Radio

MLB this weekend: plenty on ESPN America, A’s-Phillies on BBC Radio

by Matt Smith

CovHlWEThere is plenty of great baseball to enjoy at a convenient time this weekend.

There are six contests starting before midnight on Saturday, two of which are being shown on ESPN America.

We then have all but two of the Sunday games being played in daylight, with the BBC 5 Live Sports Extra game scheduled to be a Roy Halladay start for the Phillies against the Oakland A’s.

Here’s a guide to the ‘early’ MLB games on offer this weekend. All times are in BST.

Saturday 25 June

18.05. Colorado at NY Yankees (Cook – Sabathia) * ESPN America
21.10. Washington at Chicago White Sox (Gorzelanny – Danks)
21.10. NY Mets at Texas (Niese – Ogando)
21.10. LA Angels at LA Dodgers (Chatwood – Kuroda) * ESPN America
21.10. Cleveland at San Francisco (Masterson – Cain)

It’s wall-to-wall baseball on ESPN America this evening, with the Rockies-Yankees game followed by Angels-Dodgers and then Reds-Orioles at midnight.

The Rockies beat the Yankees 4-2 yesterday, but today’s match-up would seem to favour the home team.  Aaron Cook is yet to pick up a win since making his season debut on 8 June and while Sabathia hasn’t quite been at his dominating best this year, the Bronx Bombers have been living up to their nickname whenever he’s been on the mound.  The Yankees are averaging over eight runs per game in his starts this season.

That game will be followed by the latest instalment in the L.A. Interleague rivalry.  The Angels took the series opener 8-3 last night and will send the rookie Tyler Chatwood to the mound. He had the best start of his short MLB career last time out, pitching seven scoreless inning against the Mets. Kuroda also went seven scoreless in his last start against the Astros. 

Sunday 26 June

18.05. Arizona at Detroit (Saunders – Penny) * ESPN America
18.35. Cincinnati at Baltimore (Bailey – Guthrie)
18.35. Oakland at Philadelphia (Outman – Halladay) * BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.35. Boston at Pittsburgh (Miller – McDonald)
19.05. Colorado at NY Yankees (Nicasio – Nova)
19.05. Tampa Bay at Houston (Niemann – Happ)
19.10. Washington at Chicago White Sox (Hernandez – Humber)
19.10. Chicago Cubs at Kansas City (Wells – Hochevar)
19.10. Minnesota at Milwaukee (Pavano – Narveson)
19.15. Toronto at St. Louis (Romero – McClellan)
20.05. NY Mets at Texas (Gee – Holland)
21.05. Atlanta at San Diego (Hudson – Luebke) * ESPN America
21.10. LA Angels at LA Dodgers (Weaver – Kershaw)

It’s a triple bill again on ESPN America on Sunday, as the two earlier games are followed by the Sunday Night game between the Indians and Giants from 1 a.m.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd are scheduled to bring us the A’s-Phillies game on BBC radio, although their plans are subject to change, as we witnessed last week when Rory McIlroy’s exploits led to a late switch from the Royals-Cardinals game to Phillies-Mariners.

If they do stick to the planned game then we’ll get to listen to one of the true current pitching masters practicing his craft against what’s been a punch-less A’s batting lineup this season. 

The A’s are likely to need a very strong pitching performance to keep in the game and are scheduled to turn to Josh Outman.  The left-hander is on the well-trodden road back from Tommy John surgery and apart from a short outing against the Red Sox at the start of the month (2.2 innings, four runs conceded), he’s done a solid job for the team which bodes well for his future.

Nat and Josh will be on air from 18.00, giving them plenty of time to cover all the news from the previous week and to preview the game.  They’ll also be keeping fans abreast of the action from the other early games.

No doubt once the A’s-Phillies game is over, many subscribers to the MLB.com packages will be logging on to follow the Angels-Dodgers game.  A Jered Weaver-Clayton Kershaw match-up with announcer legend Vin Scully calling the action is the perfect way to bring the weekend to a close.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above.  You can listen to the 5 Live Sports Extra game via Digital Radio, Digital TV or online on the BBC website (UK residents only). The full schedule for this weekend’s games can be found on MLB.com.

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.