We’ve got early games on Tuesday and Thursday this working week, as well as a close-to-midnight encounter between the Yankees and Rays on Monday.

All times are in BST.

Monday 16 May

23.40. NY Yankees at Tampa Bay (Burnett – Price)

This one sneaks into the ‘early’ category by twenty minutes.  David Price has been excellent as expected for the Rays so far this season.  The Yankees really didn’t know what they would get from A.J. Burnett and have to be delighted that he has thrown the ball well in most of his eight starts.  He went seven innings, giving up just one hit, against the Royals last time out, although he did walk five along the way.  

The Yankees need a big performance after being swept at home by the Boston Red Sox as part of a five-game losing streak.

Tuesday 17 May 

18.05. Houston at Atlanta (Rodriguez – Lowe) * ESPN America
18.05. Pittsburgh at Washington (Morton – Zimmermann)
20.10. San Francisco at Colorado (Sanchez – Jimenez)
23.40. NY Yankees at Tampa Bay (Nova – Shields)

Originally the Giants-Rockies game was going to be a stand-out pitching match-up between Matt Cain and Ubaldo Jimenez; however the Giants’ rain-out on Sunday has altered things and now it will be Jonathan Sanchez on the mound.  That should still be an interesting encounter, with Sanchez giving the Giants a quality start last time out and Jimenez still looking to find his best form. 

Charlie Morton and Jordan Zimmerman have been bright spots for the Pirates and Nationals respectively, so that could be a better contest than you might expect and is a relatively rare chance to see those two teams on ESPN America (UPDATE: they’re now showing Astros-Braves instead).  Wandy Rodriguez has regrouped after a difficult start to the season and there’s no doubt that the Astros need him in what looks like being another long year in Houston.

Wednesday 18 May

No early games, which is a shame as Wednesday normally offers us several early games to pick from most weeks.  

Thursday 19 May 

17.35. Pittsburgh at Cincinnati (Karstens – Cueto)
18.10. Washington at NY Mets (Hernandez – Dickey)
18.40. Houston at St. Louis (Happ – McClellan) * ESPN America
20.35. Minnesota at Oakland (Blackburn – Ross)
20.40. LA Angels at Seattle (Haren – Fister) was Bedard

There are five early games on Thursday, all but one being an intra-division contest.  The exception is the Twins-A’s game, in which Nick Blackburn is scheduled to match up against Tyson Ross, who pitched arguably the best game of his fledging Major League career last time out against the White Sox.

Looking at the two NL Central games, an injury forced Cueto to sit out the whole of April, but he’s making up for lost time and has impressed in his first two starts and will look to continue against the Buccos.  The Reds handed Kyle McClellan his first loss of the year in his most recent start after he had begun the season 5-0.  He will aim to get back to winning ways against J.A. Happ and the Astros.

In the NL East game, the ever-green Livan Hernandez takes the Citi Field mound opposite knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who got knocked around by Houston in his last outing and hasn’t received a ‘W’ since his season opener on 3 April.  The AL West game brings together the Angels and Mariners, with Doug Fister now likely to make the start against Dan Haren after a rain-out pushed back the M’s rotation plans (Erik Bedard was initially scheduled to pitch in this one).

Friday 20 May

No early games, but it is the start of interleague play.  The games include the opener of a very rare series for the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park.

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.