After the British sporting weekend began with winning starts – if unconvincing displays – by England and Scotland in the Rugby World Cup, North America provides plenty of exciting sports action to follow over the rest of the next two days.

The 2011 NFL season got underway on time on Thursday night after an offseason in which such a scenario didn’t always appear likely.  Grid Iron really gets going with a raft of games on Sunday, while the baseball regular season is coming towards a climax, albeit with most of the playoff races seemingly all-but decided already.

Here are the MLB games starting before midnight UK time this weekend.

Saturday 10 September

18.07. Baltimore at Toronto (van den Hurk – Alvarez)
18.10. Chicago Cubs at NY Mets (Wells – Capuano)
21.10. Cleveland at Chicago White Sox (Carmona – Humber)
21.10. Minnesota at Detroit (Swarzak – Scherzer)
21.10. Oakland at Texas (Cahill – Ogando)
21.10. Cincinnati at Colorado (Arroyo – White)

The Netherlands’ Rick van den Hurk has spent most of the year in Triple-A pitching for the Orioles’ Norfolk Tides. After two recent relief appearances back in the Big Leagues, he’ll make his first MLB start of the season in Toronto.

Another starting assignment worth watching comes in Colorado where Alex White takes to the mound at Coors Field.  He was one of the key pieces that the Rockies received when they traded Ubaldo Jimenez to the Cleveland Indians at the end of July.  White has given up fourteen earned runs in his three starts so far with his new team; however he was credited with his first Rockies win last time out so has that to build on against the Reds on Saturday. 

Sunday 11 September

18.05. Minnesota at Detroit (Diamond – Fister) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.07. Baltimore at Toronto (Hunter – McGowan)
18.35. Houston at Washington (Sosa – Strasburg)
18.35. Florida at Pittsburgh (Vazquez – McDonald)
18.40. Boston at Tampa Bay (Lester – Shields)
19.10. Cleveland at Chicago White Sox (Jimenez – Stewart)
19.10. Philadelphia at Milwaukee (Worley – Gallardo)
19.15. Atlanta at St. Louis (Hudson – Westbrook)
20.05. Oakland at Texas (Harden – Wilson)
20.10. Cincinnati at Colorado (Volquez – Pomeranz)
20.35. NY Yankees at LA Angels (Garcia – Santana) *ESPN America
21.05. LA Dodgers at San Francisco (Kuroda – Bumgarner)
21.10. Kansas City at Seattle (Teaford – Vasquez)
21.10. San Diego at Arizona (LeBlanc – Collmenter)

Sunday is sure to be an emotional day in the States on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  That will be a key theme running through ESPN America’s coverage as they are showing the Yankees’ road game against the Angels and then the Mets’ home game against the Cubs at 1 a.m.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra are kicking off the first Sunday of NFL action with the New York Giants’ home game against the Washington Redskins (coverage starting at approximately 21.00), so they have chosen the opening MLB game of the day to reduce the risk of the two games overlapping.  Doug Fister has been in terrific form for the Tigers of late, striking out a career high 13 batters on Monday against the Indians.

Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will undoubtedly be providing updates from Stephen Strasburg’s second MLB start of the season, while the excellent pitching match-up at Tropicana Field between Jon Lester and James Shields will probably get a mention or two as well.  The Kuroda-Bumgarner clash at AT&T Park is the pick of the ‘just-past-nine’ games if you’re not interested in following the NFL that evening. 

Two other pitching assignments also catch the eye.  After Alex White’s start on Saturday, the other key pitcher acquired by the Rockies in that trade makes his Major League debut on Sunday.  Drew Pomeranz is highly regarded among those in the know when it comes to prospects and Rockies fans will be keen to get their first glimpse of his potential.  Meanwhile, Ubaldo Jimenez takes the mound at the Cell as his Indians make a desperate bid to somehow clamber back into the AL Central race.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above.  You can listen to the 5 Live Sports Extra game via Digital Radio, Digital TV or online on the BBC website (UK residents only). The full schedule for this weekend’s games can be found on MLB.com.