On Thursday morning, somebody mentioned on Twitter that Opening Day is better than Christmas Day. I knew exactly what they meant. Christmas Day can be a great time, but after a long build-up it seems to go past quickly and all you’re left with is a Boxing Day hangover.
With Opening Day, the build-up and excitement is followed by the best part of seven months of baseball.Â
For newcomers to the website, one of the regular resources we provide during the season is a guide to the ‘early’ games, by which we mean games that begin before midnight UK time. There’s a guide to the working week every Monday, plus guides on Saturday and Sunday to games on those days.Â
So for the first time in 2011, here are the early games that people in Britain can enjoy live at a convenient time (all times in BST).Â
18.05. Chicago White Sox at Cleveland (Edwin Jackson – Carlos Carrasco)
18.05. Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (Paul Maholm – Carlos Zambrano)
18.05. Atlanta at Washington (Tommy Hanson – John Lannan)
18.07. Minnesota at Toronto (Francisco Liriano – Kyle Drabek)
18.10. LA Angels at Kansas City (Ervin Santana – Kyle Davies)
18.10. San Diego at St. Louis (Clayton Richard – Jake Westbrook)
We start with a batch of games beginning just after 6 in the evening. It’s fair to say Cleveland will be hoping for a better start from young Carrasco today than they got from Fausto Carmona yesterday (or for the White Sox to have used up all their hits in the opening game). The same will be true of Minnesota and Francisco Liriano as the Blue Jays teed off on the Twins in a 13-3 scoreline. Kyle Drabek, the key pitching prospect acquired from the Phillies in the Roy Halladay trade a year ago, should start for Toronto, with another Kyle pitches for the Royals against the Angels.Â
The Atlanta Braves’ pitching staff shut-out the Nationals in their opener on Thursday and facing Tommy Hanson will be a daunting prospect for Washington today.
21.10. Detroit at NY Yankees (Brad Penny – A.J. Burnett)
21.10. San Francisco at LA Dodgers (Matt Cain – Ted Lilly)
The two games beginning just after nine o’clock are full of intrigue. The Yankees won their opener against the Tigers on Thursday and have had a rest day to worry about which A.J. Burnett will turn up for them this season. One start won’t tell a great deal, of course, but if ever a pitcher needed a confidence booster to get his season underway, it’s Burnett today. Meanwhile the Dodgers have delighted in winning two games against the defending champion Giants so far. Matt Cain and Ted Lilly should combine to make for a good pitching battle.
All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com. ESPN America is not showing any of the early games today, although the Red Sox-Rangers game will be on the main ESPN channel live from 1 a.m. The full schedule for today’s games can be found on MLB.com.
