There are several exciting series between playoff contenders scheduled this week in MLB.

In the American League, the big head-to-head battle is in Anaheim as the Texas Rangers and L.A. Angels meet for a four-game series, with four games separating the teams in the AL West standings.

In the National League, the San Francisco Giants are in Atlanta to take on the Braves in a four-game series, while the Arizona Diamondbacks are also on the east coast facing the Philadelphia Phillies.

Unfortunately no games from those series are scheduled to be played in the daytime in the States, and therefore in the evening for us in the UK, but there are seven early games this working week.  They include two games from the Rays-Red Sox series and a game between the Dodgers and Brewers.  All times are in BST.

Monday 15 August

No early games

Tuesday 16 August

18.05. Tampa Bay at Boston (Shields – Lester) *ESPN America

We have a rare Tuesday early game this week and it should be a good contest from the AL East.  The Rays may be out of the playoff race this season, but they still have plenty of exciting players and you know that they will want to show they mean business for 2012 by picking up wins against their rivals.  Meanwhile the Red Sox can’t afford to slip up, with the Yankees playing in Kansas City this week. 

Shields was scheduled to pitch against the Yankees on Sunday, but that game was rained out so he will take the mound on Tuesday instead.  Jon Lester is looking to bounce back from two below-par performances so far this month. 

Wednesday 17 August

18.35. Tampa Bay at Boston (Davis – Lackey) *ESPN America
19.05. Chicago Cubs at Houston (Coleman – Norris)
20.35. Baltimore at Oakland (Simon – McCarthy)
23.35. NY Mets at San Diego (Gee – Latos)

The Rays-Red Sox series continues on Wednesday with a pitching match up between Wade Davis and John Lackey. Casey Coleman looks set to be recalled from Triple-A to take Carlos Zambrano’s rotation spot as the Cubs and Astros meet at Minute Maid Park.

Some thought that the Orioles might be a bit more competitive this season than they have been in recent years, but that’s not how things have turned out. The A’s have also failed to live up to expectations, so this is a contest between two teams looking to give their fans something to cheer about.  The same goes for the Mets and Padres in a late start from San Diego.

Thursday 18 August

19.10. LA Dodgers at Milwaukee (Kershaw – Estrada) *ESPN America

This could be the highlight of the ‘early’ schedule this week.  As noted in Weekly Hit Ground Ball, the Milwaukee Brewers are in blistering form of late and Marco Estrada pitched well in the place of Chris Narveson on Saturday against the Pirates. 

As for the Dodgers, they have generally been a disappointment, but Clayton Kershaw has been an honourable exception that that trend. Although he is not confirmed to be starting on Thursday at the time of writing, this would be his normal turn in the rotation and if so then we will be in for a treat as he battles against Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.

The Dodgers-Brewers game is scheduled to be followed on ESPN America by a game from the Little League World Series.

Friday 19 August

19.20. St. Louis at Chicago Cubs (Garcia – Wells) *ESPN America

We end the working week, and start the weekend, with a Cardinals-Cubs game from Wrigley Field.

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.