LIVE on Peacock: MVP candidates battle in Cleveland

August 7th, 2022

Cruising to their sixth straight postseason appearance, the first-place Astros take on a Guardians club that's fighting for a playoff spot in this week's “MLB Sunday Leadoff," live on Peacock right now.

Click here to find out how you can stream the MLB Sunday Leadoff game each week on Peacock.

AL MVP candidates anchor both lineups; Houston's Yordan Alvarez and Cleveland's José Ramírez were among the top five AL vote-getters in the latest MLB.com MVP poll, and each slugger is batting third in Sunday's series finale.

Houston also made three moves ahead of Tuesday's Trade Deadline, but none is looking bigger than the addition of Trey Mancini, who became the first player in Astros history to have his first three hits with the franchise go for home runs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Guardians, who were quiet at the Deadline, are banking on players like rookie Steven Kwan to continue to excel as they battle it out with the Twins and White Sox to see which team will claim the AL Central title.

Play-by-play announcer Jason Benetti is joined in the booth by analysts Geoff Blum (Astros) and Rick Manning (Guardians). Blum spent five seasons with Houston (2002-03, 2008-10) during his 14-year career and won a World Series title with the White Sox in '05. Manning was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1972 Draft and spent eight-plus seasons (1975-83) with Cleveland.

NBC Sports’ Ahmed Fareed hosts the MLB Sunday Leadoff pre- and postgame shows each week, and also serves as the in-game reporter. This Sunday, Fareed will be joined by Gordon Beckham, who was the No. 8 overall pick in the 2008 Draft and currently serves as a White Sox analyst on NBC Sports Chicago, and Rob Friedman, aka PitchingNinja on Twitter (@PitchingNinja), who provides pregame pitching breakdowns.

MLB Sunday Leadoff on Peacock debuted on May 8, beginning an 18-week schedule of exclusive MLB contests every Sunday morning. Peacock was also the exclusive home of the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game.

The MLB Sunday Leadoff game each week is the only game scheduled until 1:30 p.m. ET, when the rest of the day’s action will begin. The start time for each MLB Sunday Leadoff game is noon ET for the remainder of the games through Sept. 4.