3 Opening Day games to be played on first Sunday
ESPN, ESPN2 to televise all, then four more games on second day of 2016 season
Opening Day 2016 will feature a combined seven national ESPN telecasts -- three on Sunday, April 3, and four on Monday, April 4 -- Commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Thursday at the end of Major League Baseball's quarterly Owners Meetings in Dallas.
Those seven games will include the participation of all 10 clubs that played in the 2015 postseason. It starts with a televised tripleheader on that Sunday: Cardinals at Pirates at 1:05 p.m. ET, Blue Jays at Rays at 4:05 ET (ESPN2), and then a World Series rematch of Mets at Royals in the exclusive ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" national opener at 8:35 ET.
The Monday slate of openers will feature an ESPN quadrupleheader: Astros at Yankees at 1:05 p.m. ET, Mariners at Rangers at 4:05 ET, Dodgers at Padres at 7:05 ET and Cubs at Angels at 10:05 ET (ESPN2).
The full lineup of Monday openers, including the traditional opener in Cincinnati, can be found at MLB.com/schedule.
Back by popular demand will be a regular-season-ending slate of games that all begin at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 2. The final-day schedule aims to maximize the excitement of the postseason races.