We have a big evening of high class drama in store on Sunday.

No, not Downton Abbey. It’s the third from last Sunday of the 2012 MLB regular season and the race for playoff places gets more intense by the day.

No team encapsulates that better than the Los Angeles Dodgers. Clayton Kershaw should have been pitching for them today in a match-up against Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals. However, a hip injury has sidelined the Dodgers’ ace for today’s game and, depending on the results of a trip to a hip specialist this week, could see him shelved for the season.

It would be a huge blow for the Dodgers, coming alongside the losses of Chad Billingsley and Ted Lilly, but they have remained in the playoff race despite an indifferent recent run of results and their walk-off victory yesterday shows that there could still be some magic left at Dodger Stadium this season.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Tampa Bay at NY Yankees (Moore - Kuroda) *ESPN America
18.07. Boston at Toronto (Lester - Morrow)
18.10. Cincinnati at Miami (Latos - Nolasco)
19.05. Philadelphia at Houston (Halladay - Lyles)
19.10. LA Angels at Kansas City (Haren - Smith)
19.10. NY Mets at Milwaukee (Young - Peralta)
19.10. Chicago White Sox at Minnesota (Peavy - Diamond)
19.20. Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (Locke - Volstad)
20.05. Detroit at Cleveland (Porcello - Jimenez)
20.05. Seattle at Texas (Beavan - Harrison)
21.05. Baltimore at Oakland (Wolf - Straily) *ESPN America
21.05. Colorado at San Diego (White - Werner)
21.10. St. Louis at LA Dodgers (Wainwright - Fife)
21.10. San Francisco at Arizona (Vogelsong - Corbin)

01.05. Washington at Atlanta (Gonzalez - Minor) *ESPN America

Elsewhere, the other team in L.A. was on the other side of a walk-off result on Saturday, as the Kansas City Royals hit back-to-back jacks off Ernesto Frieri to put a dent in the Angels’ playoff push.

The Houston Astros also showed that teams sitting a long way out of contention can still have a major impact on the race for October. The Phillies went into Houston on Thursday riding a seven-game winning streak and Minute Maid Park looked like being the perfect launching pad for the visiting team to really force their way into the playoff mix. Instead, Roy Halladay will take the mound today trying to help his team salvage a sweep from the four-game series.

With plenty of other exciting match-ups on the line-up, not least the day’s opener between the Rays and Yankees, it should be another evening where the only problem for baseball fans will be knowing where to look for the next big moment.

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.