MLB Unveils Broadcast Schedule for 60-Game Season
Story Highlights
Major League Baseball has unveiled the 60-game schedule for the 2020 regular season, which will begin with two games on ESPN on Thursday, July 23rd, followed by fourteen games on Opening Day presented by Mastercard and T-Mobile on Friday, July 24th, and a full 15-game slate on Saturday, July 25th. Opening night on ESPN will feature the defending World Series Champion Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees at Nationals Park at 7:08 p.m. (ET), followed by the San Francisco Giants visiting their NL West-rival Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium at 10:08 p.m. (ET)/7:08 p.m. (PT).
ESPN will open the season with seven nationally televised games in four days beginning on Thursday, July 23, while Fox will open its season on Saturday, July 25 with its first-ever quadruple-header. MLB on TBS live game coverage will return on Sunday, July 26th with the Yankees at Nationals at 1:05 p.m. (ET), and will continue each Sunday through the end of the regular season. MLB Network will air four live games through the first weekend of the season, beginning with an Opening Day doubleheader on July 24.
ESPN Welcomes MLB Back to the Ballpark with Seven Games in Four Days
The season will begin on Thursday, July 23, with two exclusive Opening Night presented by John Deere game telecasts on ESPN, including the New York Yankees and Gerrit Cole visiting the defending World Series Champion Washington Nationals and Max Scherzer at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN will continue its Opening Night coverage at 10 p.m. when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Mookie Betts host the San Francisco Giants and Johnny Cueto.
ESPN’s MLB season-opening slate continues on Friday, July 24, with an Opening Day presented by John Deere tripleheader. At 4 p.m., the New York Mets and Jacob deGrom will host the Atlanta Braves and Ronald Acuña, Jr. At 7 p.m., the Chicago Cubs, led by new manager David Ross, will host the Milwaukee Brewers and Christian Yelich. At 10 p.m., the Los Angeles Angels and Mike Trout visit the Oakland Athletics and Matt Olson. (Select games on July 24 may be subject to local blackout restrictions.)
The 2020 Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell season begins with a special doubleheader on July 26, with the Mets hosting the Braves in their season-opening series finale at 7 p.m. At 10 p.m., the Dodgers host the Giants, in their season-opening series finale. In total ESPN will televise seven season-opening games in four days. All MLB games on ESPN are available to stream via the ESPN App.
The 2020 ESPN Sunday Night Baseball team features play-by-play voice Matt Vasgersian, World Series Champion and analyst Alex Rodriguez and ESPN Senior MLB Insider Buster Olney reporting. Vasgersian and Rodriguez enter their third seasons on Sunday Night Baseball, while Olney will begin his 10th season. Sunday Night Baseball is the exclusive, national MLB game of the week, generally airing at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes and streaming via the ESPN App.
Following the special July 26 doubleheader, ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball schedule continues on August 2, when the New York Yankees and Aaron Judge host their long-time rivals, the Boston Red Sox and Xander Bogaerts at 7 p.m.
Fox Sports Opens 25th MLB Season With Quadruple-Header
Fox Sports opens its season on Saturday, July 25 with its first-ever quadruple-header. The daylong marathon begins with pregame coverage at 12:30 PM ET, bringing fans expert analysis and up-to-the-minute news from around the league. Game coverage starts at 1:00 PM ET as the Milwaukee Brewers head to Wrigley Field to face the Chicago Cubs. An in-state rivalry matchup between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers follows at 4:00 PM ET, and the New York Yankees and reigning champion Washington Nationals complete the opening slate on FOX at 7:00 PM ET. Rounding out FOX Sports’ Opening Day, the San Diego Padres welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks at 9:00 PM ET on FS1.
The network’s regular season lineup is highlighted by a collaboration with MLB, bringing the 1989 Oscar nominee “Field of Dreams” to life. On Thursday, Aug. 13 at 7:00 PM ET on FOX and FOX Deportes, the Chicago White Sox host the St. Louis Cardinals, in the first-of-its-kind event, on the Dyersville, Iowa farm site where the classic film was shot. A special edition of the network’s highly acclaimed pregame show begins at 6:00 PM ET on FS1 before shifting to FOX at 6:30 PM ET. Additional details around the event will be announced at a later date.
Highlighted by 22 total games on broadcast, regionalized action on FOX begins Thursday, July 30 with a pair of games featuring the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets in addition to the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins at 7:00 PM ET.
The network will announce its full regular season slate, inclusive of all FS1 and FOX Deportes matchups, Postseason schedule and on-air talent lineup at a later date.
MLB Network To Feature Four Games During Opening Weekend
MLB Network will air four live games through the first weekend of the season, beginning with an Opening Day doubleheader on July 24th featuring the Detroit Tigers at Cincinnati Reds at 6:10 p.m. (ET)/5:10 p.m. (CT), followed by the Seattle Mariners at Houston Astros at 9:10 p.m. (ET)/8:10 p.m. (CT). In two intradivision games, the Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals will air on Saturday, July 25th at 2:15 p.m. (ET)/1:15 p.m. (CT), followed by the Angels at Athletics on Sunday, July 26th at 4:10 p.m. (ET)/1:10 p.m. (PT).
In addition to its live games, MLB Network’s comprehensive regular season studio programming lineup will return on July 23rd with MLB Central presented by Hyundai, High Heat with Christopher Russo presented by Liberty Mutual, The Rundown presented by Rocket Mortgage, MLB Now, Intentional Talk presented by Toro, MLB Tonight and Quick Pitch presented by Blue Emu, featuring previews, highlights, analysis and interviews. Leading up to its two games on Opening Day, MLB Tonight will provide wall-to-wall coverage featuring its signature live look-ins at games in progress.
