There was a point on Sunday evening when it seemed that MLB was returning to normal service.
We had been living in a weird parallel universe for too long. The confusion caused by Albert Pujols’ homer-less run was finally ended when he took Drew Hutchison deep in the fifth inning of the Angels’ game against the Blue Jays. The baseball world suddenly seemed to make a bit of sense again.
But then we were reminded that in MLB, there’s no such thing as ‘normal’.
The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Boston Red Sox 9-6 in a seventeen-inning game lasting over six hours that ended with first baseman/DH Chris Davis pitching two score-less innings for the O’s. The word ‘ridiculous’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.
What made the game even harder to take in is that the result marked the Orioles’ sixth win in a row and left them with a Major League best 19-9 record. Yes, you read that correctly: the Orioles have the best record in the Majors. That’s not going to last, but in some ways that makes looking at the current standings even more enjoyable. It’s a reminder that you never know what to expect in MLB.
Unfortunately there aren’t many opportunities to follow games live during the British evening this working week. The first game of a double-header between the White Sox and Indians gives us some Bank Holiday Monday evening baseball and we have four games on Wednesday, but that’s it for the pre-midnight starts.
There are only six games in total on Thursday and none are being played during the daytime in North America, which is very rare for what’s normally the ‘get-away’ day for teams that want to play early before flying off for their weekend series. The lack of an early game on Thursday means there’s no MLB on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra this week.
Still, the games that are scheduled for an early start should offer plenty of interesting storylines, including Philip Humber making his third post-perfect game start (the previous two haven’t gone particularly well for him) and Zack Greinke looking to continue his remarkable record pitching at home for the Brewers (they are 20-0 in his starts at Miller Park, including two post-season wins) against an in-form Jonny Cueto.
All times are in BST.
Monday 7 May
18.05. Chicago White Sox at Cleveland (Humber – McAllister)
Tuesday 8 May
No early games
Wednesday 9 May
18.10 Cincinnati at Milwaukee (Cueto – Greinke)
19.20 Atlanta at Chicago Cubs (Hudson – Maholm)
20.35 Toronto at Oakland (Morrow – Parker)
20.35 Colorado at San Diego (TBA – Bass) *ESPN America
Thursday 10 May
No early games
Friday 11 May
No early games
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.
1 comment
We will have an early game on Thursday after all. The Rangers and Orioles were rained out on Wednesday, so they will play a double-header on Thursday. Game One starts at 21.05 BST with Colby Lewis and Wei-Yin Chen being the scheduled starters.