Tag Archives: BBC

MLB Opening Week

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It would be enough simply to have MLB back, but to start out with 27 early games – those that take place during the evening, U.K. time – in total this working week makes it even better.

Twenty-six of the thirty MLB teams are playing at least one day-game this working week, with only fans of Arizona, Atlanta, Cleveland and Toronto needing to stay up late to watch their team during their opening few games.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is broadcasting two live games this week on digital radio, starting on Monday with Yankees v Red Sox and following that up with Detroit v Minnesota on Thursday.

With plenty of live games on ESPN America and all of the action available online via an MLB.TV subscription, we can all dive headfirst into the 2013 MLB season.

Here’s the list of games starting before midnight U.K. time this working week, with all times stated in BST.

Monday 1 April

18.00. Boston at NY Yankees (Lester – Sabathia) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra, ESPN America
18.05. Miami at Washington (Nolasco – Strasburg)
18.10. San Diego at NY Mets (Volquez – Niese)*MLB.com Free Game of the Day
18.35. Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh (Samardzija – Burnett)
19.10. Colorado at Milwaukee (Chacin – Gallardo)
21.00. San Francisco at LA Dodgers (Cain – Kershaw)*ESPN America
21.10. Kansas City at Chicago White Sox (Shields – Sale)
21.10. Detroit at Minnesota (Verlander – Worley)
21.10. LA Angels at Cincinnati (Weaver – Cueto)

Tuesday 2 April

20.10. Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Hammel – Price) *ESPN America, MLB.com Free Game of the Day

Wednesday 3 April

19.10. Kansas City at Chicago White Sox (Santana – Peavy)
19.10. Texas at Houston (Ogando – Humber) *ESPN America
21.10. Detroit at Minnesota (Sanchez – Correia) *MLB.com Free Game of the Day

Thursday 4 April

17.35. LA Angels at Cincinnati (Blanton – Arroyo)*ESPN America
17.35. Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh (Wood – McDonald)
18.10. Detroit at Minnesota (Porcello – Pelfrey) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.10. San Diego at NY Mets (Stults – Gee)
19.10. Kansas City at Chicago White Sox (Guthrie – Floyd)
20.10. Baltimore at Tampa Bay (Gonzalez – Hernandez)
20.35. Seattle at Oakland (Maurer – Griffin)*ESPN America
21.05. Miami at Washington (LeBlanc – Zimmermann)

Friday 5 April

18.05. NY Yankees at Detroit (Nova – Fister)*ESPN America
19.05. LA Angels at Texas (Vargas – Holland)
20.05. Minnesota at Baltimore (Hendriks – Arrieta)
21.05. Kansas City at Philadelphia (Davis – Kendrick)
21.10. San Diego at Colorado (Marquis – Francis)
21.35. St. Louis at San Francisco (Westbrook – Zito)*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

World Series 2012 preview

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The Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants will play Game One of the 108th MLB World Series in the early hours of Thursday morning, U.K. time.

The two teams have made the World Series 30 times combined, emerging victorious on 10 occasions (6 times for the Giants – 5 of which from their period as the New York Giants – and 4 for the Tigers).

However, this will be the first time they have faced each other in the Fall Classic.

The schedule

All of the games in the best-of-seven series are scheduled to begin at just gone eight in the evening Eastern Time. While we in Britain move out of British Summer Time this coming Sunday, Daylight Time in the States continues for one extra week. That means the first three games of the series will begin at just gone 1 a.m. U.K. time, with the remaining games starting one hour earlier.

Game One – 24th Oct. (1 a.m. on Thursday 25th U.K. time)
Game Two – 25th Oct. (1 a.m. on Friday 26th)

Game Three – 27th Oct. (1 a.m. on Sunday 28th)
Game Four – 28th Oct. (00.05 on Monday 29th)
Game Five – 29th Oct. (00.05. on Tuesday 30th)*

Game Six – 31st Oct. (00.05 on Thursday 1st)*
Game Seven – 1st Oct. (00.05 on Friday 2nd)*

* if necessary.

The coverage

BBC Radio will once again be providing their own dedicated commentary for the World Series on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra, available on DAB Radio, Digital TV and online (for U.K. residents). Simon Brotherton and Josh Chetwynd will be in the booth at AT&T Park and Comerica Field.

TV coverage is provided by ESPN America, most likely showing the MLB International feed with Gary Thorne and Rick Sutcliffe on commentary duties. MLB.TV subscribers will be able to watch or listen to the games live and on-demand online, with the TV feed being FOX’s U.S. National TV coverage presented by Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

The series match-up

The San Francisco Giants are returning to the World Series two years after winning the championship for the first time since crossing coasts and moving to the Bay Area in 1958.

They have been the comeback kings of the 2012 playoffs, recovering from an 0-2 deficit against the Cincinnati Reds to win the best-of-five series 3-2 and then fighting back from a 1-3 deficit in the Championship Series to win their best-of-seven match-up with the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3.

In fact, the Giants’ resiliency has been a feature of their season. They lost star closer Brian Wilson to season-ending elbow surgery early on and then suffered the indignity of seeing their run-scoring catalyst Melky Cabrera’s season – and reputation – go up in smoke following a failed drugs test in mid-August.

However, Cabrera did provide his teammates with a parting gift. His MVP-winning performance in the All-Star Game helped the National League to an 8-0 victory and home-field advantage in the World Series. Games One and Two, as well as Six and Seven if required, will take place in San Francisco as a result.

The Giants’ opponents have also had to battle against some bad luck on their way to the Fall Classic. Detroit’s World Series hopes appeared to have taken a significant blow during the offseason when Victor Martinez suffered a season-ending knee injury and created a sizeable hole in their batting lineup.

The Tigers’ 83 year old owner, Mike Illitch, responded by getting his cheque book out and spending $214m on a nine-year contract for free agent first baseman Prince Fielder. The signing of Fielder alongside the presence of established stars Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander made the Tigers overwhelming favourites to win the AL Central division and whilst the Chicago White Sox nearly scuppered their plan, Detroit proved too strong in the end and made their way into the postseason. A hard-fought 3-2 series win over a spirited Oakland A’s team was followed by a 4-0 thumping of the New York Yankees to book a place in the World Series early, leaving the team kicking their heels while the National League series continued.

The layoff has raised some concerns that the Tigers might come into the World Series slightly off the boil. Such fears are understandable considering what happened in 2006, the last time Detroit made it to the Fall Classic. As has occurred in 2012, the Tigers quickly swept their way through the Championship Series (against the A’s) that year whilst the National League Championship Series went the full seven games. The Cardinals ultimately got the better of the New York Mets 4-3 in that series and went on to beat the Tigers in five games.

Could history repeat itself with the battle-hardened Giants jumping on the too-well-rested Tigers this time around?

It could – there’s no doubt about that – but putting too much store in the Tigers being undercooked would be a mistake. Detroit are a well-run club and have played several practice games to keep their players ticking over. More importantly, they earned the ability due to the rest period to align their starting rotation exactly as they wanted and that should more than counter any possible rustiness.

Justin Verlander, the ace of aces, will be Detroit’s starting pitcher in Game One, with Barry Zito likely to take the ball for the Giants. That’s a notable pitching match-up advantage for the Tigers and, upon consideration of the two rosters, on paper it seems fair to peg them as favourites to win an entertaining series in six games.

But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the 2012 postseason so far it’s that trying to predict how things will turn out is liable to leave you looking foolish.

It’s best instead simply to sit back and enjoy watching or listening to the drama unfold.

The final games

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Sunday’s MLB games decided some of the AL postseason places, with the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles all now assured of a playoff spot, but there is still plenty of drama to come over the next three days.

And that’s before we get into any potential tiebreaker situations for Thursday and Friday.

As you would expect, all games on Monday and Tuesday are being played in the evening local time, but there are some early starts on Wednesday.

Right now it doesn’t look like we’ll quite have the incredible final day that we witnessed last year and frankly it would be greedy to expect such a treat two years in a row. It’s not completely out of the question though and don’t forget that for four teams ‘making the playoffs’ simply means making a one-and-done Wild Card contest.

Getting to the playoffs is only the start of the journey.

All times are in BST.

Monday 1 October

No early games.

Tuesday 2 October

No early games.

Wednesday 3 October

17.35. Atlanta at Pittsburgh (Hudson – Burnett)
18.05. Philadelphia at Washington (Lee – Jackson)
19.20. Houston at Chicago Cubs (Norris – Wood)
20.35. Texas at Oakland (Dempster – Griffin) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
21.10. NY Mets at Miami (Hefner – Buehrle)
23.40. LA Angels at Seattle (Weaver – Beavan)

The BBC will join the Rangers-A’s game in progress on Wednesday after commentary from a Championship football game, with the MLB show pencilled in for a 21.45 start.  ESPN America have yet to decide which game they will be broadcasting that day.

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 Ex 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

All to play for

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It’s the final Sunday of the 2012 MLB regular season and, after all of the thrills and spills from yesterday, we’re sure to be in for even more drama today.

Matt Kemp’s pair of home runs helped the Dodgers to a 3-0 victory over the Rockies yesterday and they still have an outside shot at the one remaining playoff place in the National League after the Cardinals were beaten in extra innings by the Nationals.

Meanwhile in the American League all five playoff places are still to be settled.

ESPN America’s coverage takes us directly into that race, firstly via a Rays-White Sox match-up and then with the A’s taking on the Mariners (the latter game will be joined in progress once the first comes to an end).  The Angels and Rangers will play a double-header after their game on Saturday was rained out.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Kansas City at Cleveland (Hochevar - McAllister)
18.05. LA Angels at Texas (Greinke - Darvish)
18.07. NY Yankees at Toronto (Hughes - Alvarez) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.10. Philadelphia at Miami (Hamels - Eovaldi)
18.35. Boston at Baltimore (Stewart - Saunders)
18.35. NY Mets at Atlanta (Mejia - Medlen)
18.35. Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (Cueto - Rodriguez)
19.10. Tampa Bay at Chicago White Sox (Price - Quintana) *ESPN America
19.10. Houston at Milwaukee (Lyles - Fiers)
19.10. Detroit at Minnesota (Sanchez - Hendriks)
19.15. Washington at St. Louis (Detwiler - Lynn)
21.05. Seattle at Oakland (Ramirez - Milone) *ESPN America
21.05. San Francisco at San Diego (Lincecum - Volquez)
21.10. Colorado at LA Dodgers (De La Rosa - Beckett)
21.10. Chicago Cubs at Arizona (Rusin - Collmenter)

00.05. LA Angels at Texas (Santana - Holland)

UPDATE: Initially I missed the fact that the Yankees-Blue Jays game is being broadcast on BBC Radio. The post has been updated above to take this into account.

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. 

All eyes and ears on the Dodgers

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The Sunday evening MLB game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra focuses on the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is only fitting as they are the centre of attention right now.

Their rumoured blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox was completed on Saturday and new recruit Adrian Gonzalez made an instant impact by launching a three-run homer in his first Dodger at-bat later in the day.

The Dodgers went on to win their game against the Miami Marlins 8-2 and they will go for the three-game series sweep today. The BBC’s coverage begins at 21.00 and Nat Coombs and Josh Chetwynd will have plenty to discuss on top of the in-game action.

Los Angeles currently trail the San Francisco Giants by two games in the NL West and if the Dodgers can get the brooms out then that gap will close to 1.5 games before the Giants face the Atlanta Braves in the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game. The Giants won the first two games of the four-game series before Jason Heyward’s three-run shot off Madison Bumgarner helped the Braves claw back one game yesterday.

Two Tims – Hudson and Lincecum – will take to the mound in the series finale.

All times are in BST.

18.05. NY Yankees at Cleveland (Garcia – Jimenez)
18.05. LA Angels at Detroit (Santana – Scherzer)
18.10. St. Louis at Cincinnati (Wainwright – Bailey)
18.10. Houston at NY Mets (Harrell – Hefner)
18.35. Toronto at Baltimore (Alvarez – Tillman)
18.35. Kansas City at Boston (Smith – Doubront)
18.35. Washington at Philadelphia (Zimmermann – Lee)
18.35. Milwaukee at Pittsburgh (Rogers – Bedard)
19.10. Seattle at Chicago White Sox (Millwood – Floyd)
19.20. Colorado at Chicago Cubs (Chacin – Volstad)
20.05. Minnesota at Texas (De Vries – Feldman)
21.10. Miami at LA Dodgers (Buehrle – Harang) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
21.10. San Diego at Arizona (Volquez – Saunders)

01.00. Atlanta at San Francisco (Hudson – Lincecum) *ESPN America

Elsewhere, the Detroit Tigers rallied from a 3-0 deficit to even up their series with the Los Angeles Angels yesterday. The much-improved Ervin Santana will look to continue his recent upturn in form against Max Scherzer and the Tigers today. Detroit need a win to remain close to the Chicago White Sox – who have won five in a row – in the AL Central and both the Tigers and Angels will want to tale advantage of fellow Wild Card hunters the Oakland A’s and Tampa Bay Rays having a very rare Sunday off.

There’s also an excellent game in prospect at the Great American Ballpark. The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds have shared the first two games of their series and the finale should be well worth watching with Adam Wainwright being in scintillating form for the Cards.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com. 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 final quarter begins

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We’re in to the final quarter of the MLB regular season.

It makes every series, and every winning or losing streak, feel just that little bit more important.

There are several eye-catching series this week between playoff contenders, most notably Atlanta at Washington, Baltimore at Texas, New York Yankees at Chicago White Sox, L.A. Angels at Boston and San Francisco Giants at L.A. Dodgers.

It’s a bit of a shame that none of these series are scheduled to include a day-game, but we will be able to see several playoff contenders in action this working week and the highlight of the pre-midnight U.K. time schedule should come on Thursday with Justin Verlander starting against the Toronto Blue Jays.

All times are in BST.

Monday 20 August

No early games

Tuesday 21 August

No early games

Wednesday 22 August

18.10. Kansas City at Tampa Bay (Mendoza – Shields) *ESPN America
19.10. Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee (Wood – Gallardo)
20.35. Minnesota at Oakland (Blackburn – Milone)
20.40. Cleveland at Seattle (McAllister – Iwakuma)
20.40. Miami at Arizona (LeBlanc – Miley)
23.35. Pittsburgh at San Diego (McDonald – TBA)

Thursday 23 August

18.05. Toronto at Detroit (Happ – Verlander) *ESPN America
18.10. Colorado at NY Mets (Chatwood – Santana)  *MLB.com Free Game of the Day
18.45. Houston at St. Louis (Keuchel – Westbrook) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra

Friday 24 August

19.20. Colorado at Chicago Cubs (Pomeranz – 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.

 

Baseball on a scorchio Sunday

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It’s been a scorchio Sunday and teams throughout Britain have been playing important play-off games on a picture perfect day.

What better way to bring the day to a close than with an evening of baseball.

You can sit in the garden as the evening cools down (hopefully) with a beer while listening to BBC 5 Live Sports Extra’s coverage of the game between the Giants and Padres. The show is scheduled to start at 21.00, with the first pitch coming five minutes later.

Alternatively, if you have wi-fi, a portable device and an MLB.com subscription you can enjoy any number of different games. Unfortunately, ESPN America is showing Little League games all evening once again, although they will be broadcasting the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game (Red Sox at Yankees) as normal.  All times are in BST.

18.05. Baltimore at Detroit (Chen – Fister)
18.07. Texas at Toronto (Harrison – Alvarez)
18.10. Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati (Volstad – Latos)
18.35. LA Dodgers at Atlanta (Billingsley – Minor)
18.35. NY Mets at Washington (Hefner – Gonzalez)
19.05. Arizona at Houston (Kennedy – Galarraga)
19.10. Chicago White Sox at Kansas City (Quintana – Guthrie)
19.10. Philadelphia at Milwaukee (Kendrick – Wolf)
19.15. Pittsburgh at St. Louis (Karstens – Garcia)
20.10. Miami at Colorado (Johnson – Pomeranz)
20.35. Tampa Bay at LA Angels (Moore – Greinke)
21.05. Cleveland at Oakland (Masterson – Parker)
21.05. San Francisco at San Diego (Vogelsong – Richard) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
21.10. Minnesota at Seattle (Deduno – Beavan)

01.00. Boston at NY Yankees (Beckett – Kuroda) *ESPN America

Picking out one game from the list, I’d have to go for the series finale between the Rays and Angels. There’s no such thing as a ‘must win’ game on 19 August, with plenty of games – and twists and turns – still to come; however there’s no doubt that the Angels will see this as an important contest to win.

They’ve dropped the first three games of the series to the red-hot Rays and all have been devastating defeats. The first came with David Price shutting down the Angels’ offence and Dan Haren having another indifferent outing, lasting just 3.2 innings and lending weight to the theory that he’s not completely healthy.

The Angels would have been confident of bouncing back the next day with ace Jered Weaver on the mound, yet he was smashed for nine runs over three innings.  They then turned the tables on the Rays’ Alex Cobb by knocking him out of the game early yesterday (2.2 innings pitched, 8 earned runs conceded), only for C.J. Wilson to have a meltdown and for the Angels to see their 8-0 lead turn into a 10-8 loss.

L.A. made a big splash ahead of the trade deadline by acquiring Zack Greinke and he is tasked with salvaging a morale-boosting victory from the series today. It will not be easy though as the Rays will counter with Matt Moore, who has been outstanding of late.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com. 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).

Keeping score on a train

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I was stuck on a train on early Sunday evening with my pocket DAB radio at least allowing me to drift off to Toronto. The Blue Jays were hosting the Yankees and thanks to BBC 5 Live Sports Extra I could listen in while on the move.

I had tried the same diversionary tactic the previous Sunday only to be plagued by a less-than helpful commentary team that constantly skipped over the important details of the game (number of outs, runners on base etc), which is not what you need when sitting in a noisy carriage.

Click the image for an enlarged view

This time I came prepared with an A6 notebook and a biro so that I could both keep a track of the game action and keep a hold on my sanity above the din and inconvenience of a group of parents and kids treating the train like their front room (in a house I’d gladly avoid).

My impromptu scoring method involved simply noting down the outcome of each plate appearance, underlining ones ending or turning into an out. This allowed me to be sure at any moment where we were in the game, how many outs there were and how many people were on base.

I didn’t keep a track of stolen bases, such as the pair stolen by Rajai Davis in the fourth inning, so I didn’t always know exactly where the runners were, but it was much better than nothing.

I also didn’t include player names, batting orders and the like as the commentators were always good at mentioning them (in fairness, the commentators in this game were much better than the previous Sunday and did keep a decent regular check on the game situation) and this wasn’t a scorecard I would be creating stats from.

It’s just a simple running log of what happened as the game went along to accompany the commentary, with runs shown by a circle around each plate appearance that came around to score and dots where a plate appearance resulted in that player gaining any RBI.

The game had reached the end of the fourth inning at the point when I turned off my radio before alighting at my destination. Phil Hughes had just been bludgeoned for six runs in the inning to give the Blue Jays a 7-0 lead and the game ended in a 10-7 victory for Toronto.

I didn’t catch those remaining innings and my ‘scorecard’ is therefore imperfect in many ways, but as a simple scoring method devised on the fly it worked perfectly well enough.

Big games on Wednesday and Thursday

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As the playoff race begins to gain momentum, we’re given the chance to follow games from several of the biggest series of the week at a convenient time for us in the U.K.

On Wednesday, Stephen Strasburg and Tim Lincecum will take to the mound at AT&T Park in the finale of a three-game series between the Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants.  Much of the talk surrounding the Nationals relates to Strasburg’s innings limit and the seemingly steadfast decision by General Manager Mike Rizzo to cut short his star pitcher’s season. Best catch him while you can.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Roy Halladay will hope to continue his good recent form in a match-up with Mark Buehrle and the Marlins, while the Tampa Bay Rays have the tough task of facing King Felix Hernandez at Safeco Field.

There are only two early games on Thursday, but what we lack in quantity is more than made up for by the quality of those two contests.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be covering the final game of a significant four-game series between the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees, with hte show scheduled to start at 18.00.  At 21.05, the L.A. Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates finish off their four-game series at PNC Park.

Monday 13 August

No early games

Tuesday 14 August

No early games

Wednesday 15 August

17.40. Philadelphia at Miami (Halladay – Buehrle) *ESPN America
18.10. Detroit at Minnesota (Scherzer – De Vries)
19.20. Houston at Chicago Cubs (Norris – Germano)
20.10. Milwaukee at Colorado (Rogers – Pomeranz)
20.40. Tampa Bay at Seattle (Hellickson – Hernandez) *MLB.com Free Game of the Day
20.45. Washington at San Francisco (Strasburg – Lincecum) *ESPN America

Thursday 16 August

18.05. Texas at NY Yankees (Holland – Nova) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
21.05. LA Dodgers at Pittsburgh (Blanton – McDonald)

Friday 17 August

No early games

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.

Yankees v Blue Jays on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra

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Sunday marks the end of the 2012 London Olympic Games and I’m sure I’m far from the only person to have found myself watching, and appreciating, lots of sports that I normally would not get to see.

It’s been wonderful to witness minority sports receiving this level of attention, albeit with the lingering disappointment that baseball and softball haven’t been able to benefit from the Olympic effect.

Unless the sports do ever get back into the Olympics – and I’m not optimistic despite the recent sensible decision for baseball and softball to once again pool their efforts to try to achieve this – all we can do is sell the sport to as many people as we can through our own enthusiasm and enjoyment of it.

With BBC 5 Live Sports Extra broadcasting the Yankees – Blue Jays game from 18.00, and ESPN America hosting their usual Sunday triple-header, there is plenty of baseball to enjoy if another three-hour Olympic ceremony doesn’t appeal to you.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Boston at Cleveland (Lester - Kluber)
18.07. NY Yankees at Toronto (Hughes - Happ) *BBC 5 Live Sports Extra
18.10. LA Dodgers at Miami (Capuano - LeBlanc) *ESPN America
18.35. Kansas City at Baltimore (Chen - Hunter)
18.35. St. Louis at Philadelphia (Lynn - Worley)
18.35. San Diego at Pittsburgh (Ohlendorf - Bedard)
19.05. Milwaukee at Houston (Gallardo - Lyles)
19.10. Oakland at Chicago White Sox (Colon - Sale)
19.10. Tampa Bay at Minnesota (Shields - Diamond)
19.20. Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs (Cueto - Raley)
20.05. Detroit at Texas (Porcello - Darvish)
20.35. Seattle at LA Angels (Vargas - Weaver)
21.05. Colorado at San Francisco (White - Zito) *ESPN America
21.10. Washington at Arizona (Detwiler - Corbin)

01.00. Atlanta at NY Mets (Sheets - Niese) *ESPN America

The Yankees received a blow yesterday with the news that CC Sabathia is heading to the Disabled List due to soreness in his elbow; however they won their fourth consecutive game with a 5-2 victory over the Blue Jays and have a six-game lead in the AL East to cushion the impact of losing their ace. Phil Hughes will take to the mound for the Yankees today.

Elsewhere, a five-run fifth inning yesterday helped the Washington Nationals to their eighth straight victory and they will turn to Ross Detwiler in their attempt to increase the streak to nine.

The Rays’ resurgence continued with a 4-2 win over the Twins on Saturday to put them in a Wild Card winning spot with ‘Big Game’ James Shields facing the Twins today.

Meanwhile the Padres may be out of the play-off running but they have won six in a row and the most recent two victories have come at the expense of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Buccos are 4.5 games behind the Reds in the NL Central and 1.5 games in front of the Cardinals heading into today’s game in which Erik Bedard will be matched up against former Pirate Ross Ohlendorf.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com. 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).