ESPN is launching a special edition of Baseball Tonight centered on the stretch run of the Major League Baseball regular season. The whiparound program, titled MLB Squeeze Play, will make its debut on Wednesday, Sept. 11 from 7 to 10:30 p.m. EST on ESPN. Additionally, the network will also air editions of the program on the two Wednesdays thereafter on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25 featuring live look-ins of significant moments taking place in games from across the sport. Kevin Connors will appear on the first two episodes of the program as its host alongside ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst Eduardo Pérez, betting analyst Tyler Fulghum and reporters Buster Olney and Jeff Passan. ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst David Cone will be part of the first episode of the show, while the play-by-play voice of the property, Karl Ravech, joins two weeks later.
ESPN has added cut-in and highlight rights to its games as well to capture historic achievements that could occur for Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani and New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. The company has these rights on linear and digital platforms, including on social media channels. Following the three episodes of MLB Squeeze Play, the latter two of which will air on ESPN2, the network will present a traditional edition of Baseball Tonight on Sunday, Sept. 29, the final day of the regular season, with Connors, Olney and Passan. The show will start on ESPN at 6 p.m. EST and move to ESPN2 for its second hour, both of which will be available to view through the ESPN App.
In addition to the new whiparound show, ESPN has announced that the season finale of Sunday Night Baseball will take place from Citi Field in Flushing, N.Y. as the New York Mets host the Philadelphia Phillies. Both National League East division clubs are looking to make the postseason and will now play a night game at 7 p.m. EST on Sunday, Sept. 22 for this national broadcast. Coming up this weekend, Sunday Night Baseball will feature the Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks at 7 p.m. EST on ESPN.
