There are eight pre-midnight MLB games this working week and all but one contains a play-off contender.
Sadly for this A’s fan, we’re in the exception and having to face Felix Hernandez as well.
We start off with a bit of treat on Monday. The Cubs always feature prominently in the ‘early’ game lists due to the large number of day-games they play at Wrigley Field. Over the past few seasons the home team generally hasn’t had much to play for, but things are very different in 2015.
The north-siders are firmly in the Wild Card race and so games at the Friendly Confines are back to being played in front of a loud and enthusiastic crowd. With reigning AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber in town with the Cleveland Indians facing off against Jon Lester, this should be a great way to start the week.
Wednesday brings a potential playoff match-up in the form of the Houston Astros taking on the New York Yankees. This would be Mike Fiers’ scheduled rotation slot, although it’s possible he may get skipped after throwing 134 pitches in his no-hitter against the Dodgers on Friday.
Then on Thursday we have a very exciting group of early games, starting off with a Zack Greinke start for the Dodgers, passing through American League match-ups including Toronto at the surprisingly Wild-Card chasing Texas, Baltimore taking on the Royals in Kansas City and the Cubs playing at AT&T against the Giants.
All times are in BST.
Monday 24 August
19.05. Cleveland at Chicago Cubs (Kluber – Lester)
Tuesday 25 August
No early games
Wednesday 26 August
18.05. Houston at NY Yankees (Fiers – Pineda) *BT Sport/ESPN
20.40. Oakland at Seattle (Bassitt – Hernandez)
Thursday 27 August
17.35. LA Dodgers at Cincinnati (Greinke – DeSciafani) *MLB.com Free Game
18.08. LA Angels at Detroit (Heaney – Wolf)
19.05. Toronto at Texas (Estrada – Gallardo)
19.10. Baltimore at Kansas City (Tillman – Ventura)
20.45. Chicago Cubs at San Francisco (Haren – Bumgarner) *BT Sport2
Friday 28 August
No early games
All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB comes courtesy of the BT Sport and ESPN 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.