It’s the middle Saturday in the Olympics so there is plenty of sport to enjoy this evening.
Jessica Ennis will try to secure a heptathlon gold with a strong performance in her final event (the 800m), it’s the final day of finals at the Aquatic Centre, while Great Britain’s men’s football and basketball teams are in action, to name but a few highlight events.
That takes the edge off there being relatively slim pickings in terms of MLB games starting before midnight U.K. time today, with just three games on the early schedule.
18.05. Seattle at NY Yankees (Hernandez – Kuroda) *ESPN America
The Yankees snapped the Mariners’ seven-game winning streak last night with CC Sabathia logging ten strike-outs in a complete game effort. Â The M’s will counter by sending the great King Felix to the mound today and he has been in dominating form of late.
21.05. Toronto at Oakland (Romero – Griffin) *ESPN America
The A’s incredible season keeps on going as they earned their Major League-leading 13th walk-off victory in the series opener that lasted 15 innings (the game ending at breakfast time here in the U.K.). Â Ricky Romero’s season so far has been anything but incredible. In fact, it’s been downright awful considering he is such a talented pitcher. Watching such a severe plummet in performance would normally point to a player carrying an injury, but it’s difficult to imagine why the Blue Jays would continue sending him out to the mound if that was the case. The A’s have been magical, Romero has been a mystery; there’s no way to predict how this game is going to turn out.
23.10. Texas at Kansas City (Feldman – Smith) * MLB.com Free Game of the Day
Scott Feldman struggled a bit when he first moved into the Rangers’ rotation this season, but he has gradually worked his way back into starting-pitcher mode and had his best start of the season last time out, pitching eight score-less innings against the White Sox. Texas took the series opener 5-3 yesterday with Scott Harrison earning the win. With lefty Will Smith (not that one) on the mound for the Royals, there’s a good chance that top prospect Mike Olt will make his second Major League start today for the Rangers after making his Big League debut on Thursday.
All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com, while ESPN America has a baseball triple-header with the two games noted above being followed by Pittsburgh at Cincinnati from midnight. The full schedule for today’s games can be found on MLB.com.
