We already knew the Oakland A’s would open their 2020 ALDS experience Monday afternoon at 1:07 p.m., in a best-of-five against the Houston Astros. Now the rest of the week has been announced, and the whole series will be held in the afternoon. Here’s the schedule, though the final two games could yet be adjusted if some series end sooner than others.
- Game 1: Mon., 1:07 p.m. PT
- Game 2: Tue., 1:37 p.m.
- Game 3: Wed., 12:35 p.m.
- Game 4: Thu., 12:35 p.m. (if necessary)
- Game 5: Fri., 12:35 p.m. (if necessary)
All five games will be held at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and aired on TBS. Around lunchtime. Hope you don’t have work or school or anything for several weekdays in a row!
Among the other series, the Rays and Yankees will stay in the national primetime spot all week, between 4:00-5:00 p.m. PT. (7:00-8:00 p.m. ET). In the NL, held in Texas, the Braves and Marlins play their first four games at 1:00 p.m. CT, which will be 2:00 for their fans in ET. The Dodgers and Padres play at 8:00 p.m. CT, which is late for them, but it’ll be a reasonable 6 p.m. PT for their fans.
Hot takes: I already complained about this yesterday, and there’s nothing more to add. As I suggested in that last post, once the Yankees got the later primetime slot in a series with no off-days they’d be stuck there all week, meaning the A’s would be stuck in the early slot, and that’s indeed what happened. I can’t fathom how anybody would look at an A’s/Astros grudge match and not see it as nationally marketable during an era when the league is screaming about wanting to expand the sport to new fanbases, but here we are.
Kinda makes you want to root for an A’s/Marlins World Series, just to really mess with the networks. Or also to grow the sport, whatever.
Man, just brutal start times for fans back in Oakland. Yet another reason to admire A's fans. It's not easy being green. https://t.co/aiCYYrVLrl
— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) October 4, 2020
But hey, here’s your bright side to sunny baseball. That 1973 postseason turned out pretty well.
The A's ended the regular season with 3 straight day games, played day games in all 3 ALWCS games and will play at least 3 straight day games to open the ALDS...the last time the A's played 9 straight day games was in 1973 (final 2 regular season, first 7 postseason).
— Mike Selleck (@MikeSelleck) October 4, 2020