It may feel like only a few weeks since the excitement of Opening Day, but we’ve already reached July and the second half of the MLB season is underway.
This week’s schedule of pre-midnight U.K. time MLB games is dominated by a bundle on Thursday, which is Independence Day in the States. The fact that ten day-games will be played on the public holiday is probably responsible for there being only one early game on Wednesday, and one that starts at just gone 11 o’clock, but I guess we shouldn’t be too greedy.
The MLB show on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be on air from 18.00 on Thursday, although it doesn’t say on the schedule yet which game they will be broadcasting [Update: it’s the Giants v Reds game]. ESPN America will broadcast two games back-to-back that evening, alongside a game on Monday and Friday. This is the channel’s final month before it ceases to broadcast and MLB coverage moves over to an ESPN branded channel as part of the new BT Sport package.
All times are in BST.
Monday 1 July
18.07. Detroit at Toronto (Alvarez – Dickey) *ESPN America, MLB.com Free Game
Tuesday 2 July
No early games
Wednesday 3 July
23.05. Milwaukee at Washington (Hellweg – Detwiler)
Thursday 4 July
16.05. Milwaukee at Washington (Hand – Jordan) *ESPN America
18.10. San Francisco at Cincinnati (Cain – Leake) *BBC 5LSX
18.10. Arizona at NY Mets (Kennedy – Gee)
18.35. San Diego at Boston (Stults – Webster)
18.35. Philadelphia at Pittsburgh (Hamels – Cole)
19.10. Baltimore at Chicago White Sox (TBA – Quintana) *ESPN America
19.10. Cleveland at Kansas City   (Jimenez – Shields)
19.10. NY Yankees at Minnesota (Phelps – Gibson)
19.10. Tampa Bay at Houston (Archer – Lyles)
21.05. Chicago Cubs at Oakland (Wood – Parker)
Friday 5 July
21.05. Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (Liriano – Samardzija) *ESPN America
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 full ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website. BBC 5 Live Sports Extra can be found on digital radio, digital TV and on the BBC.co.uk website (coverage on the website is only available to UK residents). The complete schedule for this week’s MLB games can be found on MLB.com
Just had a letter today from BT Sport. They seem to know I am a Virgin Media customer, and they say ‘So from August, ESPN will no longer be available on the Virgin Media platform.’
Also, there is no mention of any American sports on what they are going to show, apart from MLS.