Daily Sports: Tuesday’s AL East Showdowns

After the five-day pounding of football, Tuesday marks baseball’s time to regain the daily sports spotlight, and MLB Network is taking full-advantage, going right into the high-profile AL East for split coverage of two big divisional showdowns that include all four playoff contenders.

Boston is in Tampa Bay, a series that likely represents the Rays’ last gasp to make the race for first place, and automatic passage into the Division Series, a fight in the final 2 ½ weeks. Tampa’s more immediate concern is surviving to get into the wild-card game. Both the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees are right on Tampa’s heels. The teams play the second game of their series in Camden Yards.

MLB Network will have both games at 7 PM ET, and fans in places like Kansas City and Cleveland, who are also right in the wild-card fight, will watch with interest. Even Texas might want to keep on the eye on the rearview mirror, though the Rangers are still closer to first place in the AL West, than they are to sliding into the wild-card pack.

NFL Network has a couple interesting features, starting at 9 PM ET, with looks at the lives and careers of LaDanian Tomlinson and Don Shula. Then at 10:30 PM ET, it’s a tribute to the Baltimore Ravens and their run to the 2012 Super Bowl title. What makes this feature a little more intriguing is that it promises a look at what was going on down on the field in New Orleans during the power outage in last year’s Super Bowl.

TheSportsNotebook will have NFL analysis on its mind today, as we sort out everything from Week 1, trying to figure what lessons we really learned, and what ones we should avoid rushing to judgement on after one game.