The Pittsburgh Pirates cut the St. Louis Cardinals’ lead in the NL Central to a half-game last night when the Pirates won the opener of their five-game series. Now the two teams play a doubleheader on Tuesday, with MLB Network coverage of the opener kicking off a tripleheader day of baseball that makes Tuesday a good day for daily sports on TV.
ESPN must have locked tonight’s Monday Night Baseball coverage in at the start of the season, because that’s the only reason you’d choose showing the LA Angels-Texas Rangers tonight at 7 PM ET, rather than go with the opener of the St. Louis-Pittsburgh series. But even though the Angels show no signs of life, they’ll get a little national exposure in the feature game of tonight’s daily sports schedule.
We somehow should have known that it wouldn’t come easy for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sitting at 61-41 after Sunday afternoon’s games, the Pirates are poised to not only get their first winning season since 1992, but get into the playoffs and maybe even steal the NL Central from the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds. Naturally, it’s now that the Pirates get hit with a big injury to closer Jason Grilli.
Amidst all the injuries to the Texas rotation, the complete disappointment of their everyday lineup has slid under the radar a bit. Today’s American League MLB coverage will break down the problems in the Ranger lineup and ask whether they can score enough runs to get back to the postseason.
In a mostly quiet month of July, Sunday’s daily sports docket presents a nice array of options from the sports fan, from baseball throughout the day—both past and present—to racing to a little something to stir the juices for college football.
The last day of the 2011 MLB season was one of the most dramatic in the history of the sport, as the wild-card races in both the American League and National League were settled in favor of teams who made big comebacks. And the two big nationally televised games that key Saturday’s daily sports agenda will wake up the echoes of that fateful night.
A driver who’s under the radar in the playoff race right now is Jamie McMurray. Indeed, McMurray is under the radar in general. He was termed “just an average driver” by my NASCAR consultant, my brother Bill, who can normally gin up a venomous opinion on anything as banal as whether the sun will rise in the east. Apparently McMurray is even blander than that.
The St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves have developed a nice little rivalry in the National League over the last couple seasons. At least it’s become a rivalry if you’re a sports fan in Atlanta.
This should be the best of times for the Atlanta Braves. Their principal challengers for the NL East title, the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies can’t get any traction and the Braves’ lead remains a comfortable 7 ½ games coming into Thursday night.
A day-night doubleheader in major league baseball is the cornerstone of daily sports action on TV for Thursday, and the AL East race is at the heart of it.
The Kansas City Royals weren’t expected to win the American League Central, and at 46-51, they’re still in reasonable striking distance of their first winning season since 2003. So it could be taken as unfair for today’s MLB coverage to tear into them as a disappointing. But coming into Wednesday’s games, I think this team should be in much better shape and the blame has to be pinned on the offense.
There’s not a lot of diversity in a sports fans’ daily sports TV choices on Wednesday, but the one option there is at least a big-time option—or at least as big-time as is possible in the month of July. It’s the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays (7 PM ET, ESPN) as the AL East race continues to heat up on Wednesday night from Fenway Park.