- There is something almost indecent about the amount of baseball on the last full Saturday of August, and if you call yourself a fan, you have to know where to point your eyes before the first pitch even lands in a catcher’s mitt. Today’s schedule is loaded with fifteen games across multiple time zones, giving you a steady early-afternoon stream of American League and National League action that continues deep into the night. If you are lucky, or very determined, you will spend the day with your television remote, checking plus-ones, switching between networks, and maybe a small part of your mind dreaming about how the race to October will eventually shake out. Of those fifteen games, four will be broadcast to the entire nation, or at least some version of the entire nation, under the Fox Sports umbrella, and they make for a gorgeous smorgasbord. The first of these is a match to start the day on FS1, when the Washington Nationals face the Miami Marlins in Miami, a contest that is less about two playoff favorites fighting over the spoils and more about two middling teams trying to make sense of their own place in the National League midfield. From there, good evening sees the FOX regional window: Pittsburgh Pirates at Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants at Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs at Seattle Mariners, three separate games, all of which are happening at the same 7:15 p.m. Eastern start time, and one of which will be shown to you depending on what your local listings tell you. That may sound like a frustrating way to watch, but it is also a wonderful little slice of baseball tradition: your network affiliates decide what matters, your rooting interest decides what you hope to see, and you trust that a nationwide broadcast can still make you feel like you are standing in a certain ballpark. The best news for those who prefer a little more control is that every FOX and FS1 broadcast in your market is available both live and on demand through FOX One, so even if your local market sends you out in a different direction than the game you wanted, you can still easily circle back later to catch all the moments that everyone is already talking about.
The afternoon FS1 choice relates to the Nationals and Marlins, and there is a piece of backstory in the pitching matchup even if neither side has truly captured this season. Washington sends Jake Irvin (7-2, 5.80 ERA), a young pitcher whose season has been a set of storms: he has moments of real stuff, and he has flashes of helplessness, and that elevated ERA suggests an arm still looking for consistency rather than a guy who knows the dotted between his ears. Across the same mound at loanDepot Park, Miami starts Eury Pérez, whose record looked less gaudy than his actual performances: a 9-6 and 3.23 ERA that say the pitcher is considerably better than the right side of the family can claim. The two teams are bunched in that middle-of-the-pack spot in the National League where one hot week can move you from “just okay” to an opportunistic wild-card contender, and one cold week can send you all the way back. That makes this game a perfect kind of late-summer dance, two young teams trying to prove something, while their pitchers of index-setting eras compete in a beautifully irrational undercard on FS1. If you are a neutral fan, you can watch with zero pressure, maybe enjoy that sort of weirdness that comes with the late weeks of August, when September remains a pickpocket and every roster is still inflated by injuries and the occasionally necessary call-up. The crisp Washington white and Miami’s walls, plus the undeniable drama of a starting pitcher trying to regulate a something like 3.00 ERA or six, can be exactly the kind of low – the game should just confirm that you are baseball enough.
Then comes the main event, the first of three FOX regionalized games at 7:15 p.m. ET, but for many the most intriguing one on the card is the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Los Angeles Dodgers in the juggernaut city by UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers enter the weekend with one of the strongest records anywhere in baseball, and they have the kind of lineup that turns a routine August night in Los Angeles into a highlight-ever. They are the team you want to see, but the Pirates are not without reasons for hope: they are a young club with statements about surrender, just the latest team trying to climb into the National League postseason conversation from the lower deck of the ladder. For this one, Pittsburgh sends Jaron Bra to the mound, pitcher with 2-5 record and a 4.78 ERA that tells you play has been all natural, but your stuff may be better than that line is, actually. The challenge, matches up against Dodgers starter Tarik Skubal, whose 7-7 record is an honest 2.85 ERA compensation, a sign of good labor that often did not get the run support he deserved. There is a certain attraction in this: one young pitcher with the record, another recognized ace with a deceptive record, both dealing under the lights in Los Angeles,where Shaquille’s midget home run histories waft through a summer breeze. You want to be careful not to buy too much into the win-loss game, because tonight, the only numbers that matter are the ones that march across the scoreboard as the night moves forward. For a neutral fan, this is like getting a double feature inside one game: a pitcher’s duel combined with a Dodgers offensive explosion threat every time the bottom of the inning rolls around.
At the same time, seven time zones away, so far by daylight, the San Francisco 5 must watch at Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, and it is hard to imagine a match up with more September flavor than this. Boston enters the game over .500 and staying in the American League playoff chase, and every Crease Series in Fenway feels like a little playoff start, especially at night when the old ballpark’s stands glow with the particular kind of New England excitement. The Red Sox have a genuine rope to October, and on the mound for their opponent at Fenway they are led by right-hander Sonny Gray, who has been stunningly strong all season, a guy with a 14-3 record and a 2.65 ERA, looking like the kind of pitcher who thinks of every batter as a puzzle he has already solved. On the opposite side is a San Francisco club that is hoping to make hunter through the National League, and they will hand the ball to Blade Tidwell, a rookie with a 0-0 won-loss record and 4.33 ERA, showing just how far the Giants are willing to reach to find some help in the second half. There is poetry in the mix: Fenway Park’s electric at-mosphere, the old Green Monster, the crack of a bat against a city night, and a game that could be a turning point for both franchises. Even if you are supposed to be a great neutral, you may want to make some room for son Gray, because not every season has to have a 2.00 ERA to leave you thinking, “How good can this man really become?” The Red Sox are the team with more to celebrate, but the Giants are the farm looking in, and the host will come to play because every win increases their pressure on the wild-card race. With two teams playing with different anxieties, this game delivers an extra stubborn tragic drama.
The final regionalized FOX offering takes us to the northwest, where the Chicago Cubs will try to keep their own strong season moving against a Seattle Mariners club that is trying to climb back into the American League picture after a compelling cycle of the season. The Cubs, with one of the best records in the league and a hair of the Natural Coast, are not exactly panic; they are a team with good talent and an even better way of staying calm in the worst moments of a month. Seattle, meanwhile, has Los programmed for a hot dog in the Northwest, and they need every win they can get, to prove they are more than a beautiful ballpark under a dose of Ts and Tails on the Kingdome. The pitching match-up gives you two southpaws, the Cubs’ David Peterson (7-7 ERA and 5.29) against the Mariners’ Bryan Woo, whose 9-8 ERA with a 4.10 var a player who has actually had a good season and a 9-8 record that isn’t really as good as his arm. This feels like exactly the kind of game for an August night that could be stolen, but both teams have reasons to please them: the Cubs want to keep pace with the Dodgers at first place in a league that is open wide as a summer night sky; the Mariners are fighting to keep their hopes alive. Bank of America Park is one of baseball’s most beautiful parks, and I when the game time reaches, it will have a cool breeze, a vibrant Seattle fanbase, and that particular tension of a team that knows it’s not a fantastic night but must still win. There is something fundamentally humanizing about watching a team play with the wall behind them; every play, every new moment, every run is much more full of meaning.
Now, if you’re looking to catch all of tonight’s opportunities, the schedule is heavy enough to make you happy, but careful. All this starts at 1:35 p.m. ET with Blue Jays–Yankees, when a healthier in New York is still not enough to forget every earlier advantage; and the Braves–Brewers matchup at 2:10 p.m. brings together the incredible pitching and personality of baseball in the afternoon. At 6:10, the Cardinals and Phillies meet in a battle of two National League dreams, then at 7:05 we get Angels at Rangers and Rays at Orioles at almost the same moment, which is a really sweet treat for a smart TV. At 7:10, you have the Mets at White Sox and the Athletics at Astros, two games in time, that send fans to the nearest seat knee-deep in a richer schedule. Perhaps the most fun of all: at 7:15, Tigers at Royals, two teams that know exactly how to play the season with their own principles, are also off to a new start. Then we climb up to the red, with Reds against Diamondbacks and Guardians at Rockies at 8:10, followed by the Twins at Padres at 8:40 p.m., which is probably the night for those actually watching the national tip. Multiple games will be televised to the world via various formats, but FOX and FS1 are giving everyone a chance to see a good baseball. To know which evening FOX event you can get on your screen, check your local lists; there are always reminders, and the FOX/FS1 coverage in your market is streaming live on FOX One, and if you missed any of those one or four things today, you can also watch exact the best moments after. That’s the beauty of older baseball, August anxiety and millions of fans all over the country, in a different time, thinking about the same balloon of sport.
