The playoffs are in full swing and the Boston Red Sox will be looking to sweep out the Tampa Bay Rays and after going up 2-0 in the series, the two teams will go head to head in Florida at Tropicana Field in what could be a deciding game on TBS at 6 pm.
The game will have the Rays pitching Alex Cobb and the Red Sox pitching Clay Buchholz and the Red Sox will be looking to get through to the next round in the American League to play either the Detroit Tigers or the Oakland Athletics. David Ortiz is coming off of a two home run game and the team will be looking to sweep the series 3-0 with a win on Monday night in Tampa.
The Major League Baseball postseason is all set and with the National League Wild Card game going down on Tuesday before the American League game with the Cleveland Indians and the Tampa Bay Rays, TBS has released a full list of their broadcast teams for the playoffs.
The network has done a good job of bringing in new talent and moving people around, as Keith Olbermann will be coming in to handle studio duties as the lead man and he will have a number of solid guys along with him, including Pedro Martinez and Tom Verducci along with some other names, including Mark DeRosa for a short time. The tiebreaker game started the coverage and the wild card games will be next before the Divisional Series, all of which will be on TBS and the MLB Network.
TBS has kept its number one team mostly intact, although Cal Ripken will be moving from the studio into the booth after it was suggested last year and now he will join the group of Ron Darling and Ernie Johnson in the booth, while Craig Sager will be reporting. That crew will have the game on Tuesday for the Wild card and they also will be broadcasting the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves series in the National League Divisional Series. That crew is usually very good after getting off to a rocky start a couple years ago and Ripken should be a welcome addition to the booth.
John Smoltz was previously in that position and now he will be on the second team for TBS, working with Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson for the American League wild card game and the winner of that game against the Boston Red Sox. The crew will have the Rays and Indians game on Wednesday for the American League wild card and then they will pick up the American League Divisional Series with whoever wins that game against the Boston Red Sox. David Aldridge will be working the reporting for that game.
The last crew of Buck Martinez and Dennis Eckersley will be working the Detroit Tigers and Oakland Athletics series and Bob Brenly along with Dick Stockton will be doing the National League divisional series with the St. Louis Cardinals and whoever wins the NL wild card on Tuesday night. Rachel Nichols will be working the reporting for the AL Wild Card game and then for the ALDS, while Aldridge will be at the ALDS after working the tiebreaker game.
The wild card games and the divisional series will be split on TBS and the MLB Network at various times and then the championship series will be split between TBS and Fox. The American League will be aired on FOX with game 1 of the ALCS starting on October 12 and the NLCS will start on October 11 on Friday on TBS. The first games of the ALDS and NLDS will be on TBS, with the AL starting after the NL series gets going on Thursday with the Cardinals and the Dodgers/Braves series.
