There are only a handful of early MLB games this week: six on Thursday and one on Friday.  There should be some good games among them though as Interleague play continues in the Majors.

All times are listed in British Summer Time. 

Monday 22 June

There are no early games today and only four later on.  The Cubs and Braves are making up a rained-out game beginning at ten past midnight (Dempster and Vazquez are on the mound), while another Bay Bridge series begins in Oakland between the Giants and the A’s (03.05).

Tuesday 23 June

There is a full schedule of games tomorrow, but again none of them begin before midnight.  Interleague play produces some interesting match-ups, including the Yankees against the Braves (Wang and Hanson at midnight), Cubs against Tigers (00.05 – a great pitching contest in prospect between Carlos Zambrano and Edwin Jackson) and a re-run of last year’s World Series between the Phillies and Rays (00.08).  The Giants-A’s game should also be worth watching, as Tim Lincecum takes on rookie Vin Mazzaro (03.05).

Wednesday 23 June

No joy again. In the later games, the potential pitching match-ups that catch my eye include Rich Harden versus Rick Porcello (00.05), Joe Blanton against Matt Garza (00.08) and Luke Hochever against Roy Oswalt (01.05).

Thursday 24 June

18.05. Cubs @ Tigers – Lilly (7-4), Galarraga (3-7) 
18.10. Cardinals @ Mets – Carpenter (5-1), Santana (8-5)  
19.05. Royals @ Astros – Bannister (5-4), Moehler (4-4)  
19.05. Dodgers @ White Sox – Billingsley (9-3), Richard (2-1)  
19.05. Twins @ Brewers – Baker (4-6) , TBD 
21.40. Padres Mariners – LeBlanc (0-0), Washburn (3-5)

At last! We have six early games to enjoy.  Two pitching match ups really stand out.  The Cardinals and Mets meet in the only non-Interleague game and the scheduled pitchers are Chris Carpenter and Johan Santana (18.10).  Just under an hour later we have the Dodgers taking on the White Sox with Chad Billingsley and Jose Contreras toeing the rubber (19.05).

Friday 25 June

21.05. Cubs @ White Sox – Wells (1-3), Contreras (2-6) 

The Windy City series gave us two early games last week from Wrigley. The south-siders stage the next group of games between the Cubs and White Sox and they continue the trend of playing them in the day time.

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America’s MLB schedule can be found here.