Here are the times and announcing assignments for the 2024 MLB League Championship Series games, running between Oct. 13 and (potentially) Oct. 22, with some analysis of each matchup. All times are Eastern.
National League Championship Series: Los Angeles Dodgers vs New York Mets
Game 1: Sun, October 13, at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles; Fox 8:15 p.m.
Game 2: Mon, October 14, at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles; Fox/FS1 4 p.m.
Game 3: Wed, October 16, at Citi Field, New York; FS1 8 p.m.
Game 4: Thu, October 17, at Citi Field, New York; FS1 8 p.m.
Game 5: Fri, October 18, at Citi Field, New York; FS1 5 p.m.*
Game 6: Sun, October 20, at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles; FS1 8 p.m.*
Game 7: Mon, October 21, at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles; FoX/FS1 8 p.m.*
* If necessary
– a 30-minute pregame show before each game.
NLCS Game Commentators for Fox: Joe Davis, John Smoltz; Ken Rosenthal (Reporter), Tom Verducci(Reporter)
MLB on Fox Pregame/Postgame: Kevin Burkhardt, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Dontrelle Willis; Tom Rinaldi
Fox Deportes (Spanish; Cable/SAP): Adrian Garcia Marquez, Edgar Gonzalez, Carlos Alvarez, Jaime Motta, Rolando Nichols
ESPN Radio (Sirius XM ch 80): Jon Sciambi, Doug Glanville
Dodgers radio (Sirius XM ch 178): Charley Steiner, Rick Monday
Dodgers Spanish radio: Pepe Yñiguez, José Mota
Mets radio (Sirius XM ch 177): Howie Rose, Keith Raad
Mets Spanish radio: Max Perez Jimenez, Nestor Rosario
TUDN Radio (Spanish; Sirius XM ch 180): Jesús Acostas, Alberto Ferreiro, Luis Eduardo Quiñones
Streaming (Internet & app): Fox Sports, MLB.TV
The Dodgers’ 98 wins this season were the best of any team in MLB, but they faced a tough challenge in the NLDS, narrowly edging the San Diego Padres in five games. They came up with a 2-0 victory in Game 5 Friday on the strength of solo home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández, plus strong pitching from starter Yoshinubo Yamamoto and relievers Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Michael Kopech, and Blake Treinen. But there are still a lot of questions for them, especially with injuries and with pitching question marks. Jack Flaherty gets the call for them in Game 1 Sunday, and we’ll see how he does after a less-than-stellar outing in Game 2 of the NLDS.
Meanwhile, the Mets got here after a 2-1 Wild Card series win over the Milwaukee Brewers and then a 3-1 NLDS win over the Philadelphia Phillies. And they come in with a lot of hitting firepower. Pete Alonso’s three postseason home runs so far are the most of anyone still in the playoffs (the Padres’ Fernando Tatís Jr. and Kyle Higashioka had four and three, respectively), and he’s batting .273/.433/.727 these playoffs, while Mark Vientos is hitting .429/.467/.714.
An angle to watch is the star batters on both sides. Mets’ shortstop Francisco Lindor hit .273/.344/.500 this regular season while putting up 7.8 wins above replacement (by FanGraphs, 7.0 by Baseball-Reference) and received some MVP buzz, but that seems likely to go to Dodgers’ designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (.310/.390/.646, 9.1 fWAR, 9.2 bWAR). Both have been more solid than spectacular this postseason, though, with Lindor hitting .259/.382/.481 so far and Ohtani batting just .200/.273/.350. We’ll see what they can do to elevate their games in this series.
American League Championship Series: New York Yankees vs Cleveland Guardians
Game 1: Mon, October 14, at Yankee Stadium, New York; TBS/TruTV/Max 7:30 p.m.
Game 2: Tue, October 15, at Yankee Stadium, New York; TBS/TruTV/Max 7:30 p.m.
Game 3: Thu, October 17, at Progressive Field, Cleveland; TBS/TruTV/Max 5 p.m.
Game 4: Fri, October 18, at Progressive Field, Cleveland; TBS/TruTV/Max 8 p.m.
Game 5: Sat, October 19, at Progressive Field, Cleveland; TBS/TruTV/Max 8 p.m.*
Game 6: Mon, October 21, at Yankee Stadium, New York; TBS/TruTV/Max 5 p.m.*^
Game 7: Tue, October 22, at Yankee Stadium, New York; TBS/TruTV/Max 7:30 p.m.*
* If necessary
^ Moves to 7:30 if NLCS ends
– a 30-minute pregame show before each game. A 30-minute postgame show follows each game.
ALCS Game Commentators for TNT Sports: Brian Anderson, Ron Darling, Jeff Francoeur; Lauren Jbara (Reporter)
MLB on TBS Leadoff/Closer (Pregame/Postgame show): Lauren Shehadi, Dusty Baker, Curtis Granderson, Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins
TruTV MLB DataCenter (analytics altcast): JP Morosi, Dexter Fowler, Mike Petriello
UniMas/TUDN Network (Spanish; Cable/SAP): Antonio De Valdes, Enrique Burak, Daniel Nohra
ESPN Radio (Sirius XM ch 81): Karl Ravech, Tim Kurkjian, Eduardo Pérez
Yankees radio (Sirius XM ch 175): John Sterling, Suzyan Waldman
Yankees Spanish radio: Rickie Ricardo
Guardians radio (Sirius XM ch 176): Tom Hamilton, Jim Rosenhaus
Guardians Spanish radio: Rafa Hernández-Brito, Carlos Baerga
TUDN Radio (Spanish; Sirius XM ch 181): Jesús Acostas, Alberto Ferreiro, Luis Eduardo Quiñones
Streaming (Internet & app): TBS.com; TruTV.com, Max; MLB.TV
Both the Yankees and Guardians won their divisions this season in strong enough style to avoid the Wild Card round and then handled business in their division series clashes. New York took down the Kansas City Royals in four games, while the Guardians needed five to edge the Detroit Tigers.
The Yankees will turn to Carlos Rodón to start Game 1 Monday. He last pitched in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Royals, striking out the side in the first inning but only going three and two-thirds innings and allowing seven hits and four earned runs. But they have plenty of pitching options; ace Gerrit Cole is expected to start game 2, and Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil are further possible starters. Even Marcus Stroman, left off the roster for the ALDS in favor of an extra reliever, could return for this one.
On the batting side, there’s plenty of potential power in both lineups. The Guardians features José Ramírez (who hit .335/.573/.872 this season, but just .188/.350/.438 in the ALDS) and Lane Thomas (batting just .209/.267/.390 this season, but .316/.316/.632 this postseason, including with a spectacular grand slam Saturday). The Yankees have the back-to-back matchup nightmare of Aaron Judge (hitting .322/.458/.701 this season) and Juan Soto (batting .288/.419/.569 this season), but both have been weaker this postseason, hitting .154/.389/.231 and .286/.389/.357 respectively. We’ll see which bats show up in the ALCS.
