While live baseball for the British evening is bare on Monday and Tuesday, there are some cracking match-ups to listen to/watch later in the week at MLB.com, including a Roger Clemens start on Thursday and round one of the latest contest between the North side and the South side of Chicago on Friday. As always, all times are listed in BST.
Monday – No games at a convenient time. At just after midnight, Curt Schilling faces the Braves, while Cole Hamels takes on the Indians.
Tuesday – No early games again, but plenty of great pitching match-ups later in the night. Johan Santana starts against Jorge Sosa and the Mets (00.10), Josh Beckett and the Red Sox face Tim Hudson and the Braves (00.35), and Tim Lincecum looks to rebound from three relatively shaky starts against Ben Sheets and the Brewers (01.05). Other starters taking the mound on Tuesday include Brad Penny, Dontrelle Willis, Mike Mussina, Jake Peavy, the much-touted Homer Bailey, Chad Gaudin, Bartolo Colon and Ian Snell.
Wednesday – Four early games and four interesting contests. At 19.05, the Marlins take on the White Sox (Sergio Mitre and Jon Garland are the projected starters), while Barry Zito faces the Brewers. A little later, the Reds travel to the Bay Area to face Danny Haren and the A’s (20.35) and five minutes later two talented young starters, James Shields and Micah Owings, take to the mound for the Rays and D-Backs respectively.
Thursday – Three early games and no doubt most people will be tuning in to the one that involves a certain Mr Clemens. The Rocket’s third start of the season takes place at Coors Field where he will be facing Rodrigo Lopez (who has pitched extremely well so far this season) and the Rockies at 20.05. An hour earlier, Ted Lilly and the Cubs begin their match-up with the Rangers who will send the disappointing Vicente Padilla out to the mound. Those of you trying to avoid watching yet another Yankees game can settle for Erik Bedard and the Orioles against Jumbo Wells and the Padres at 20.35. Only two other games take place in the Majors on Thursday, with Jason Schmidt and the Dodgers facing Shaun Marcum and the Blue Jays (00.07), and Paul Maholm and the Pirates taking on King Felix and the Mariners (03.05).
EDIT: Instead of starting for the Dodgers today, Jason Schmidt has undergone season-ending surgery. Chad Billingsley takes the mound in his place.
Friday – One live game for anyone wanting to watch some live baseball on a Friday night and it’s the battle of Chicago. Zambrano against Buehrle with first pitch at 21.05.
Five’s Wednesday night baseball game begins at 01.35 in the early hours of Thursday. NASN’s MLB schedule for the week can be found here .
