Home MLBBST Game Guides First England, then early MLB games

First England, then early MLB games

by Matt Smith

There are no early MLB games on the first two days of the working week, so the conclusion of the First Round of Euro 2012 can take precedence on Monday and Tuesday.

Monday gives England fans time to worry about all the possible permutations of the game against the Ukraine before we are put through the mill again on Tuesday.

Baseball then takes over on the next two days.

Visitors to the ESPN America website can cast their vote as to which of two games they want to watch on Wednesday. The Houston Astros’ good form in the late 1990s and early 2000s, coinciding with 5’s MLB coverage, means that they have a decent core of fans in the U.K.; however I would be surprised if a Royals v Astros clash won in the popularity stakes over Blue Jays v Brewers.

Toronto have suffered dreadfully bad luck over the last week in losing Brandon Morrow, Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison to injuries. Former Brewer Brett Lawrie, who was sent to Toronto in the December 2010 trade for Shaun Marcum, didn’t leave his former team on the best of terms and you can be certain that he will want to make a big statement in Milwaukee.

On Thursday, the Cardinals and Tigers complete their series with Jacob Turner, the Tigers’ top young pitching prospect, expected to be called up from Triple-A. Turner made three spot starts for Detroit last year and he has a 2.83 ERA over 11 starts in the Minors this season after dealing with shoulder tendinitis during Spring Training.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will provide coverage of the Dodgers-A’s game on BBC Radio and it’s an excellent pitching match-up in prospect with established star Clayton Kershaw and a promising rookie in Jarrod Parker [EDIT: the A’s have shuffled their rotation, so Australian Travis Blackley will now start this game instead].

All times are in BST.

Monday 18 June

No early games

Tuesday 19 June

No early games

Wednesday 20 June

18.05. Atlanta at NY Yankees (Hanson – Hughes)
19.05. Kansas City at Houston (Mazzaro – Lyles) *ESPN America?
19.10. Toronto at Milwaukee (TBA – Gallardo)  *ESPN America?
20.40. Seattle at Arizona (Vargas – Cahill) *MLB.com Free Game of the Day
23.35. Texas at San Diego (Darvish – Bass)

Thursday 21 June

18.05. St. Louis at Detroit (Lohse – Crosby) *ESPN America, *MLB.com Free Game of the Day
20.35. LA Dodgers at Oakland (Kershaw – Blackley) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra

Friday 22 June

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.

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1 comment

Matt Smith June 20, 2012 - 10:04 pm

Update note: Travis Blackley will start for the A’s on Thursday instead of Jarrod Parker, who will now pitch on Friday against the Giants. The main post above has been updated to reflect this.

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