We have a selection of fourteen MLB games beginning before midnight this working week.  They begin with a 16.05 start at Fenway on Monday and end with a Friday day-game from Wrigley Field, with plenty of good games scheduled in between.

Monday 18 April

16.05. Toronto at Boston (Ricky Romero – Daisuke Matsuzaka) * ESPN America
23.40. Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay (Edwin Jackson – David Price)

We start the working week with a very early game on Patriots Day and two pitchers who had extremely different outings in their most recent starts.  Ricky Romero pitched a complete game against the Mariners, although he was landed with the loss, while Matsuzaka was jumped on by the Rays and lasted just two innings. 

Twenty minutes before midnight, we have the start of a series between the White Sox and resurgent Rays.  All four games begin at the same time of the day, just making them fall into the ‘early’ bracket. 

Tuesday 19 April 
 
23.40. Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay (John Danks – James Shields)

Danks pitched brilliantly over eight innings last time out against the A’s, only for the White Sox bullpen to undo all his good work.  The lesson: pitch all nine innings and hope to get some offensive support.

Wednesday 20 April

18.05. Milwaukee at Philadelphia (Chris Narveson – Cliff Lee)
19.20. San Diego at Chicago Cubs (Aaron Harang – Matt Garza) * ESPN America
20.10. San Francisco at Colorado (Matt Cain – Jorge De La Rosa)
20.35. Boston at Oakland (Clay Buchholz – Gio Gonzalez)
20.40. Detroit at Seattle (Rick Porcello – Erik Bedard)
23.40. Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay (Philip Humber – Wade Davis)

We’ve got a good group of games to look forward to on Wednesday, led off by a Brewers-Phillies clash at Citizens Bank Park.  Cliff Lee bounced back from a rare bad outing against the Braves on 8 April by pitching a complete game shut-out against the Nationals last Thursday. His opposing number, Chris Narveson, has had a promising start to the season for Milwaukee.

Elsewhere, Matt Cain has been in blistering form for the Giants so far this season and it should be a good pitching match-up in Oakland with Buchholz and Gonzalez .

Thursday 21 April

17.35. Arizona at Cincinnati (Dan Hudson – Mike Leake)
18.45. Washington at St. Louis (Tom Gorzelanny – Kyle Lohse) * ESPN America
20.10. Atlanta at LA Dodgers (Jair Jurrjens – Clayton Kershaw)
23.40. Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay (Gavin Floyd – Jeff Niemann)

We should have a European angle on Thursday if the Netherlands pitcher Jair Jurrjen’s rotation spot falls as expected.  Jurrjens v Kershaw would be an exciting contest if the schedule works out that way.  Meanwhile, Dan Hudson is 0-3 on the season but he has given the D-Backs a chance to win each time out.  He struck-out ten Giants over six innings in his most recent start and if he can keep showing an ability to miss bats, while getting some much-needed run support, he should soon start picking up some wins.

Friday 22 April 

19.20. LA Dodgers at Chicago Cubs (Chad Billingsley – Casey Coleman) * ESPN America

We end the week with WGN’s Len Kasper and Bob Brenly bringing us the first game of this series between the Dodgers and Cubs.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The early games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above, while the ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website.  The full schedule for this week’s games can be found on MLB.com.