Phillies will open ESPN’s ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ slate; should expect plenty of national TV games
Get ready for the Phillies to spend more time in the national spotlight than previous years. They'll be on ESPN three times in the first two months of the season.
Winning has its perks. For some, like the Phillies front office, that means contract extensions. For the roster, it could mean spending a little bit more on big-name free agents. And for the fans, it means seeing their team play in front of a national audience on a more regular basis.
On Monday, ESPN announced its slate of Sunday Night Baseball games for the first few months of the season, and the network isn’t wasting any time showcasing the 2022 National League champs. The Phillies will visit the Rangers in Arlington, Texas, on April 2, the first ESPN Sunday night telecast of the season.
On April 30, the Phillies will return to Texas — this time to Houston — for a rematch of the 2022 World Series. Four weeks later, on May 28, the Phillies will be back playing under the lights on Sunday night when they visit the Atlanta Braves. Both of those games will also be part of Sunday Night Baseball, which is telecast at 7 p.m. throughout the season.
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ESPN’s weekly prime-time baseball broadcast will feature Karl Ravech on play-by-play for the second consecutive season. Five-time World Series champion David Cone and veteran player and coach Eduardo Perez will provide the analysis and will also be joined by senior MLB insider Buster Olney.
Assuming the Phillies pick up where they left off in 2022 — and with Bryce Harper expected to return sometime in the middle of the season following Tommy John surgery — there’s a good chance the team will find itself playing on Sunday night, along with national games on Fox and TBS, plenty of times the rest of the season as well.