A rain delay on Tuesday turned a key Game 3 between the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers from a day game to a night game, royally screwing up Fox Sports’ programming plans for the American League Division Series in the process.
Because Fox Sports does not air weekday MLB postseason games on the leading Fox network until the championship series, both the Mariners-Tigers game and the nightcap of the Yankees-Blue Jays series were slated for FS1 on Tuesday. Detroit was scheduled to host Game 3 at 4:08 p.m. ET, only for a rain delay to push back the first pitch until 7:00 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees were slated to host Game 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays starting at 8:08 p.m. ET from the Bronx.
With a limited backup plan for programming, Fox Sports decided to switch the Mariners-Tigers game to FS2 once the next game began.
If the rain delayed Tigers-Mariners runs into the Yankees-Jays at 8 p.m., Tigers-Mariners will shift from FS1 to FS2 at that time. Yanks-Jays will remain on FS1.
Both games are on Fox Sports App and Fox One app.
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) October 7, 2025
MLB also slid in to offer MLB Network as a simulcast option for viewers who do not get or regularly watch FS2.
If you don’t get FS2 or know where it is, Tigers-Mariners will also air on MLB Network.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) October 7, 2025
It was a lose-lose for Fox Sports due to the inclement weather and Fox’s primetime lineup being full of news shows and scripted series. FS2 is reportedly in fewer than 50 million households, compared with closer to 70 million for FS1. The league-owned MLB Network is reportedly available in about 33 million homes (many of which likely overlap with FS2).
The ALDS game can also be viewed on Fox One, the company’s streaming service.
If nothing else, this episode serves to highlight why so many professional sports leagues are hurrying to escape the waning reach of cable. The other side of MLB’s postseason package is confined to TNT Sports cable networks like TBS and truTV (these games are, for the time being, also available on HBO Max). Given that the majority of the attention and viewership baseball can still manage to capture these days comes during the playoffs, it is a shame that games are hidden on networks that very few have access to.
For any major sports event to air exclusively on FS2 in 2025 is a killer for viewership, though in this case, it was not entirely unforeseen or avoidable.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.