Daily Sports: Saturday Baseball Wakes Up The Echoes Of 2011

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.

St. Louis and Atlanta were the combatants in the National League that year, and it was when the Braves lost to the Phillies while the Cardinals beat the Astros that the 2011 NL wild-card was settled in favor of St. Louis. They eventually won the World Series.

On Saturday its Cards-Braves that is the focal point of Fox’s coverage. Game time is 3 PM ET, with some fans getting Angels-A’s or Mets-Nationals.

On the American League side of the 2011 season, it was the Rays completing a rally to overtake the Red Sox. Tampa Bay won an extra-inning battle against the Yankees on an Evan Longoria walkoff. That had been preceded by the Sox losing a crusher in Baltimore, as Jonathan Papelbon gave up three consecutive hits and the Red Sox watched a 3-2 lead turn into a 4-3 loss, which turned into elimination minutes later.

On Saturday night, the Red Sox are back at the scene of the crime, in Baltimore’s Camden Yards for the second of a big three-game series. MLB Network will have the game at 7 PM ET, with some viewers getting the Rangers-Indians, a game that doesn’t lack significance in its own right.

TheSportsNotebook will have MLB coverage if its own, with features geared to the races in the NL Central and AL West posting over the course of the weekend.  Yesterday our NASCAR Sprint Cup Series coverage previewed Sunday’s race in Indianapolis.