Rays vs. Guardians Live: How to Watch Wild Card Series Without Cable

The baseball postseason is upon us, and this year it’s in a new format. Instead of 10 teams in the playoffs, we now have a 12-team tournament — the three division winners plus three wild-card teams in each league. Postseason play begins Friday with the wild card round. Each wild card series is now best-of-three instead of the previous one-game winner-take-all affair.

Kicking things off will be the Tampa Bay Rays against the Cleveland Guardians in one of two American League wild card series. Games will be played at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Friday, Saturday and (if necessary) Sunday. Game 1 begins today at 12:07 p.m. ET (11:07 a.m. CT, 9:07 a.m. PT) on ESPN.

Here’s how you can watch baseball’s postseason, from the wild card round to the World Series, without cable.

The Rangers won the AL Central but finished behind the other two division winners — the Astros in the NL West and the Yankees in the AL East — so they have to play in the first round instead of resting on a bye. They enter as a 3 seed against the Rays, who are a 6 seed as the last team to qualify for the American League playoffs. The winner of this best-of-three contest will face the Yankees in the next round.

Here is the schedule for the Rays-Guardians series. All games will be played in Cleveland.

• Game 1: Friday at 12:07 p.m. ET (9:07 a.m. ET) on ESPN
• Game 2: Saturday at 12:07 a.m. ET (9:07 a.m. PT) on ESPN2
• Game 3: Sunday at 4:07 PM ET (1:07 PM PT) on ESPN (if needed)

Click here for the complete postseason schedule.

All wild card games will be on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. Looking ahead, the next two rounds in the National League (NLDS and NLCS) will be on Fox and FS1, while the ALDS and ALCS will be on TBS. The World Series, which begins on October 28, will be on Fox.

Three of the five major live TV services provide all the channels you need to watch every postseason game, but not every service carries every local network, so check each one using the links below to make sure it carries ABC and Fox in your area.

If you live in an area with good reception, then you can watch an ABC wild card game or two and Fox’s World Series for free on over-the-air channels just by attaching an affordable (under $30) indoor antenna to almost any TV.

All of the above live TV streaming services offer free trials, allow you to cancel at any time, and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out ours guide to live tv streaming services.