Postseason baseball action once again dominates on television

Tuesday's dramatic victories by the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox helped TBS once again dominate all primetime cable competition, continuing a trend of strong TV ratings for the MLB Postseason heading into a pair of decisive Game 5's the next two nights.

TBS' exclusive national telecasts of Athletics-Tigers and Red Sox-Rays averaged a 3.1 fast national rating and 4.5 million viewers, up +35% and +32%, respectively, over Day 6 coverage in 2012 according to Nielsen. For the sixth time in the last eight nights, TBS easily topped all cable competition in primetime, leading the second place network by +139% in the metered market ratings.

Overall, through 16 Postseason telecasts, TBS has averaged 3.7 million viewers, Turner's best average through that number of games since 2010 and up +9% over 2012.

Local ratings highlights from Tuesday's games included:
• 19.7 in Boston, the second highest rated MLB game there since Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS.
• 19.3 in Detroit, the highest-rated MLB game there since the 2012 World Series.
• 17.8 in Tampa Bay, the highest-rated MLB game there since Game 5 of the 2010 ALDS.

Action continues tonight with Game 5 of the NLDS between the Pirates and the Cardinals (8:00pm ET / 7:00pm CT on TBS) and Thursday with Game 5 of the ALDS between the Tigers and Athletics (8:00pm ET / 5:00pm PT on TBS).