MLB announced their updated projected timing for the American League Divisional Series, a process that involves the negotiation of their innumerable broadcast slices divvied up from series to series. The Seattle Mariners will play the winner of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians series (currently 1-0 Detroit) on Saturday, October 4th, however the time of first pitch is contingent on their opposition.
Here’s the image of consequence, from MLB’s Press Release, courtesy of a Mike Salk screenshot.
If the New York Yankees come back to defeat the Boston Red Sox in their Wild Card series (currently 1-0 Boston), the Mariners will host the DET/CLE winner at 5:38 PM PT on Saturday, broadcast on FS1, with the Toronto Blue Jays hosting New York on FOX at 1:08 PM PT. However, if Boston holds on to their series lead and wins out, they’ll cross the border and face the Bluebirds at 10:08 AM PT on FS1, with Seattle’s game bumped up as well to that 1:08 PM PT slot, albeit on the main FOX channel.
While the premise of determining start time purely around the presence or absence of the Yankees is silly from this side of the country, this does either way seem mostly favorable to Seattle viewership. The later time slot is, generally, the easier one to view for many folks, though not universal, and in either circumstance, Seattle will be getting that later slot for the American League.
Regardless, Seattle will play the later American League game of the day, and the same will be true on Sunday, October 5th, with ALDS Game Two set to start at 5:03 PM PT for the M’s. That’s important in part because it’s an hour after the other ALDS matchup, but also because the Seattle Seahawks host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 1 PM on Sunday, which was presenting a possible cluster of epic proportions as covered by our comrades in arms over at Field Gulls. Instead, it will be a staggered experience that could be one of the great sports days in Seattle history.
