MLB put the Dodgers and Nationals in a tough position on Monday night by making them wait hours until they would find out the start time of their Tuesday game.
The Dodgers and Nats were tied in their series 1-1 entering Game 3 of the NLDS on Monday and therefore knew they would be playing Game 4 on Tuesday. But what they didn’t know was the start time, and that’s because it was dependent on the outcome of the game succeeding theirs.
See, the Cubs had a chance to eliminate the Giants from the playoffs on Monday night. Had Chicago won the game and swept the series, Game 4 between the Dodgers and Nats would have been set for a 5 p.m. start time. If the Giants won the game — which they did — Game 4 between the Dodgers and Nats would start at 2:05 p.m. in LA, as it is set to do now.
The reason for the difference comes down to one thing: TV ratings.
MLB — and almost all TV programmers — prefer to have marquee events start in the evenings when most people are home from work in order to get the most viewers. So if the Cubs had ended the series, there would only have been one playoff game on the schedule for Tuesday, and the TV networks would have wanted it to start later rather than earlier.
With the start time for the Dodgers-Nats Game 4 depending on the outcome of the Giants-Cubs game — which went 13 innings — players and fans did not officially learn the time of the game until about 14 hours before the scheduled first pitch. Hopefully the issue didn’t prevent the ballplayers from getting enough sleep ahead of the elimination game.
