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.
The NL Central race was the focus of Monday in daily sports, and so it is again on Tuesday. The second game of the Reds-Cardinals series from St. Louis is the cornerstone of the sports fans’ TV agenda tonight, and will go at 8 PM ET on the MLB Network.
The race for the NL Central title is the only real drama going in the National League playoff race, as we seem to know the five teams that will qualify for the postseason, with three in the Central. But thanks to MLB’s two-year old playoff format, who finishes in first place is of great consequence. And that makes tonight’s Cincinnati-St. Louis game of great consequence.
It’s a marquee baseball matchup on Fox that sets the tone for Saturday’s daily sports agenda. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the hottest team in MLB, the new betting-line favorite to win the World Series, and they’ll be hosting the Boston Red Sox in a 4 PM ET start. The Red Sox have slipped percentage points behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.
We’re not far from the day when daily sports on Sunday means a tripleheader of NFL football, but for now, the prime focus is still a day-night doubleheader in baseball, with TBS and ESPN on the call. So it is again today.
If it’s Saturday in the summer that means Fox Sports is somewhere with baseball coverage, and that somewhere usually represents the highlight in the daily sports menu. Today, that somewhere is Fenway Park for the middle game of the Yankees-Red Sox series. It’s a good pitching matchup, with New York’s Hiroki Kuroda against Boston’s John Lackey, as the Yanks have no room for error and the Red Sox are trying to keep hold of the AL East.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have gotten more TV coverage in the last three weeks than in the entire last twenty years combined. With justification of course, since is the first time the Buccos have been relevant since 1992, but it still seems strange to be regularly noting that a Pittsburgh baseball game is the highlight of TV’s daily sports options.
The St. Louis Cardinals get a second chance at this whole notion of going head-to-head with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Last time the two NL Central rivals met head-up, the Pirates took four of five games in the Steel City. Now the Cards get to invite the Buccos to meet them in St. Louis for a big three-game set that starts tonight and keynotes Tuesday’s daily sports agenda.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are riding high and threatening to break open the NL West, but if the Dodgers are going to keep their hot streak going, they have to take the tough road through St. Louis. ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball has a good game tonight from Busch Stadium, with the Zack Greinke-Adam Wainwright showdown keynoting TV’s daily sports schedule.
Playoff race baseball is going full steam with a number of good games, but the highlight of Saturday’s daily sports tour has to be in Canton. Today is Induction Day, and at 7 PM ET, the NFL Network will show the ceremony inducting five new men into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame
The road doesn’t get a lot easier for the Redbirds tonight, as they face yet another contender on the road with a visit to Cincinnati, as St. Louis again leads up the daily sports TV agenda.
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.