Four months later than planned, the Oakland A’s quest for a 2020 World Series title is set to begin.
A 60-game regular season, followed by a 16-team post-season, is anything but ordinary, but that’s very on-brand for an extraordinary year.
Background In Brief
Plenty has happened in recent months, none of it involving MLB games being played.
The Angels now have Joe Maddon at the helm and hoped to have Anthony Rendon at third base; however their expensive off-season recruit is dealing with an oblique injury and is expected to miss at least the first couple of games of the series.
The A’s are without AJ Puk after he was placed on the 10-day Injured List with shoulder soreness. Otherwise it’s a relatively clean bill of health.
Series Schedule and Probable Pitchers
| Local | UK | Pitching | |
| Gm1 | Fri 7.10pm | Sat 3.10am | Montas – Heaney |
| Gm2 | Sat 1.10pm | Sat 9.10pm | Manaea – Bundy |
| Gm3 | Sun 1.10pm | Sun 9.10pm | Fiers – Ohtani |
| Gm4 | Mon 12.40pm | Mon 8.40pm | Bassitt – Canning |
UK Watchability Rating: 4.5/5
About as good as it gets for us in the UK. Although the opener is a night-game at the Coliseum, making for a 3.10am Saturday morning start, the other three games are all at a very convenient time for us to watch in the British evening.
Game 1 on Friday and Game 4 on Monday are also being shown on UK TV via the BT Sport channels. Friday’s game (well, Saturday …) is on BT/ESPN as part of a triple-header, so there’s a chance it will be joined in-progress if the Brewers-Cubs game goes beyond 3 hours.
Coverage for the series finale on Monday is on the BT Sport1 channel and begins at 20.30.
A’s UK schedule
We’re planning to do a pre-game live-stream on Twitter and YouTube on Saturday, from about 8.30pm UK time, to look at the line-ups and discuss the opening game. We’ll do the same before Game 4 on Monday, again starting approximately 40 minutes before first pitch (8pm UK time in that case).
We’re holding a Zoom watch-along during Sunday’s game. If you’d like to join in, get in contact via our Twitter feed.