Late Thursday, MLB released the starting times for Games 1 and 2 of the League Championship Series.
The ALCS begins in Toronto, and the winner of tonight’s Mariners/Tigers game will head there to play the Blue
Jays Sunday at 7:03 p.m. CT. That game will be televised on Fox. ALCS Game 2 will be in Toronto Monday.
The NLCS begins Monday in Los Angeles, where the winner of Saturday’s Cubs/Brewers Game 5 will face the Dodgers… at a time TBD. From Major League Baseball’s press release:
There’s really no reason for this change except… the Bears are on Monday Night Football this coming Monday, and clearly MLB doesn’t want to compete directly head-to-head with the NFL game. So if the Cubs win Game 5, NLCS Game 1 will be an hour earlier, starting at 6:08 p.m. CT, than it would be if the Brewers win.
You might ask, “Well, why don’t they just move NLCS Game 1 to the earlier time slot?” The answer’s pretty obvious — the Dodgers are the biggest TV draw remaining in MLB’s postseason and they’re not going to be relegated to a time slot that would have them start at 3 p.m. local time. MLB wants the Dodgers in prime time and that is what will happen, though an hour earlier if they’re playing the Cubs.
Go Cubs. Make MLB shift game times around.
