MLB announces postseason times and TV schedule and the Cubs’ first game is a day game

Prior to Wrigley Field getting lights in 1988, there was all sorts of handwringing when the Cubs made the postseason in 1984 because they’d have to have afternoon playoff games there.

So, what do we get for the first game of the 2020 postseason schedule for the Cubs and Marlins at Wrigley Field Wednesday? Of course, an afternoon game.

The first postseason game at Wrigley since 2018 will be played at 1 p.m. CT Wednesday, September 30. And it’s old-school TV coverage for the game, too — it will air on ABC, Ch. 7 here in Chicago. As I noted here last week, at least two of the first-round games will be on over-the-air broadcast TV on ABC stations nationwide. That’s good news for cord-cutters, as long as you have an OTA antenna, you can watch the game. The game will be produced by ESPN and we don’t yet know who the announcers will be.

Game 2, Thursday, October 1, doesn’t have a time set yet. That’s because it’s possible that some or all of the American League series could be over by then. The schedule below says “ESPN Family” for the channel, and that’s not a channel, that simply means that one of the ESPN family of channels (ESPN, ESPN2, possibly even ESPNews) will be used to air various games on Thursday and Friday.

Here’s the complete first-round schedule. You’ll note that on Wednesday, when there will definitely be eight games, there will be some overlapping times for games and you likely won’t be able to watch all of every game. Still, that’s a great baseball day, on TV from 11 a.m. CT until likely close to midnight: