Friday will be a historic night in MLB.
The first ever pair of Wild Card play-in games will be contested, leaving two teams heading on to the Division Series and two teams enduring a very quick exit from the postseason.
22.07. BST – St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves
The reigning World Series champions take on the Atlanta Braves with the most in-form pitcher in the Majors, Kris Medlen, taking to the mound for the home team.
The Cardinals are planning on treating it like a Game Seven in the World Series and they came out on top in the last one of those they played. As for the Braves, they will look for some more Medlen magic to keep alive Chipper Jones’s dreams of a World Series finale to bring his career to a close.
Live coverage of this game is available on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra (starting at 21.45), ESPN America and MLB.TV*.
00.37. – Baltimore Orioles at Texas Rangers
‘Momentum’ is a word people use a lot in sports. We’ll see how much of an effect that has in the AL Wild Card game as the Rangers come into it having lost five of their last six games, including being swept by Oakland in a three-game series that demoted the standout AL West favourites (possibly even the ALCS favourites based on them winning it the last two seasons) to this lose-and-you-go-home affair.
As for the Orioles, any sense of disappointment felt in failing to pip the Yankees to the AL East has quickly disappeared. Like the Oakland A’s, they’ve been a real surprise in 2012 and few would have predicted they would make it this far. That could make them a very dangerous opponent as they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from here.
The Rangers will send star Japanese import Yu Darvish to the mound for this crucial game, whilst the Orioles counter with late-season addition Joe Saunders.
Live coverage of this game is available on ESPN America and MLB.TV*.
* Re MLB.TV, for international subscribers, such as those of us in the U.K., postseason games come as part of the season subscription package on MLB.com. Therefore no blackouts apply to the games and no additional fees need to be paid to watch or listen to them.
