High fives for home runs!
Icon Sportswire
Come for the home runs! Stay for the Wild Card races! More home runs have been hit this year than any other season in MLB history. When Jonathan Villar went deep on Wednesday night in Baltimore, it was the 6,106th homer hit this season, breaking the mark set in 2017. And there are two and a half weeks left in the regular season! Pete Alonso of the Mets leads the Majors with 47 home runs, followed by Mike Trout of the Angels with 45 round trippers and a trio of sluggers with 44 HRs: Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers, Eugenio Suarez of the Reds and the injured Christian Yelich of the Brewers.
In addition to watching baseballs flying out of ballparks the next few weeks, there are pennant races to follow. Other than the Indians staying within shouting distance of the Twins in the AL Central, and the Cubs and Brewers nipping at the heels of the Cardinals in the NL Central, the division races are pretty much locked up. Thankfully, a pair of Wild Cards in each league leaves plenty of teams with postseason dreams. In the AL Wild Card race, the Rays, A’s and Indians are very much alive. In the NL, six teams are battling for the two Wild Card spots: the Nationals, Cubs, Brewers, Phillies, Mets and Diamondbacks.
If you want to watch this home-run-heavy action live during the season’s home stretch, you’ve got options. In the past you’ve needed a cable or satellite subscription (or season tickets) to catch your favorite team day in and day out. This year, however, baseball fans who happen to be cable TV cord cutters can also stream the action live, or record it to their cloud DVRs, throughout the summer and fall.
So where do you start? It depends on which team you follow and where you live.
Watch this:
Live TV streaming services for cord cutters: How to choose…
2:44
Live TV streaming service vs. MLB.TV
There are two major ways to stream MLB games without a cable or satellite TV subscription:
- Subscribe to a live TV streaming service like Sling TV Blue, Fubo TV or YouTube TV (starting at $25 a month)
- Subscribe to MLB.TV (reduced to $27 for the rest of the season)
Depending on where you live, one of the major live TV streaming services could carry the channel that has your favorite team. Those channels, called regional sports networks, deliver almost all of the regular season games live.
The downsides? Not every such service carries every RSN, and some teams aren’t available on any live TV service. There’s also the price: While Sling TV Blue costs $25 a month, the rest are $45 and up.
The other option is MLB.TV, a separate service that carries every game played by every team live. It’s great for hard-core fans in general, and its annual rates have been lowered for the second half of the season, which also includes the playoffs and World Series.
The big catch with MLB.TV is the local blackout restriction: You can’t watch your local team’s games live. Instead, they become available about 90 minutes after the game ends. If you’re a Yankees fan in the New York area, for example, you can’t start to watch the Yankees game until an hour and a half after the final out. Other teams’ games aren’t blacked out live, which makes MLB.TV ideal for fans who want to follow one or more of the 28 or 29 teams based in other cities, aka out-of-market teams.
Live TV streaming: Best for fans of the home team
Due to MLB.TV’s blackout restriction, a live TV streaming service is the best bet for following your local team.
Many services carry the RSN that has exclusive rights to every regular season game. And most carry the major national networks — ESPN, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS — that regularly televise matchups from different teams around the league.
Here’s how the RSNs stack up on each service.
RSN availability by team and streaming service
| Team | Regional sports network (RSN) name | Sling Blue ($25) | YouTube TV ($50) | Fubo TV ($55) | Hulu with Live TV ($45) | PS Vue ($50) | AT&T TV Now ($50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Fox Sports Arizona | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Atlanta Braves | Fox Sports South | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Baltimore Orioles | MASN | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Boston Red Sox | NESN | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Chicago Cubs | NBC Sports Chicago | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chicago White Sox | NBC Sports Chicago | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cincinnati Reds | Fox Sports Ohio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cleveland Indians | SportsTime Ohio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Colorado Rockies | AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Detroit Tigers | Fox Sports Detroit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Houston Astros | AT&T SportsNet Southwest | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Kansas City Royals | Fox Sports Kansas City | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Los Angeles Angels | Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Spectrum SportsNet LA | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Miami Marlins | Fox Sports Florida | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Milwaukee Brewers | Fox Sports Wisconsin | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Minnesota Twins | Fox Sports North | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| New York Mets | SNY | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| New York Yankees | YES | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Oakland Athletics | NBC Sports California | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Philadelphia Phillies | NBC Sports Philadelphia | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| San Diego Padres | Fox Sports San Diego | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| San Francisco Giants | NBC Sports Bay Area | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Seattle Mariners | Root Sports Northwest | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Fox Sports Midwest | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Fox Sports Sun | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Texas Rangers | Fox Sports Southwest | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Toronto Blue Jays | Sportsnet | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Washington Nationals | MASN | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Some key takeaways:
- None of the services carry the RSNs for the Baltimore Orioles, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays or Washington Nationals. To watch those teams, you’ll need cable, satellite, MLB.TV or another workaround.
- The RSNs above are typically only available to local subscribers. Refer to the individual service’s details below to find out of you live in a place where you can receive a particular RSN.
- Sling TV’s RSNs are available only to customers with Sling Blue. Sling Orange customers don’t get any RSNs. See below for details national networks carried by each.
- The only service with Houston Astros games is Fubo TV. Unfortunately, it lacks ESPN.
- YouTube TV is the only service that carries MLB Network in its base package. The others either charge more or don’t carry it at all.
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Only Sling Blue has RSNs, but both have a variety of national networks with baseball. Sling TV’s Orange plan includes ESPN and ESPN2, and the Blue plan includes Fox and FS1. Both plans offer TBS. The MLB Network is available as part of the Sports Extra add-on, which costs $5 a month for Sling Orange customers or $10 a month for Sling Blue customers.
You can bundle the Orange and Blue plans together to increase your baseball viewing options. The individual plans usually cost $25 a month each but are currently discounted to $15 a month for the first month. Likewise, the bundled Orange & Blue plan usually costs $40 a month, but you can get it for $25 a month for the first month. See which local channels and RSNs are available in your area here.
Hulu with Live TV costs $45 a month and includes ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1 and TBS but not MLB Network. Click the “View all channels in your area” link on its welcome page to see which local networks and RSNs are available where you live.
PlayStation Vue’s $50-a-month Access plan includes ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1 and TBS. The $55-a-month Core plan adds MLB Network. See which local channels and RSNs you get here.
YouTube TV costs $50 a month and includes ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS. Plug in your ZIP code on its welcome page to see which local networks and RSNs are available in your area.
Formerly DirecTV Now, AT&T TV Now’s cheapest, $50-a-month Plus package includes ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1 and TBS. Neither the Plus nor the $70-a-month Max package, however, includes the MLB Network. You can use its channel lookup tool to see which local channels and RSNs are available in your area.
FuboTV costs $55 per month and includes Fox, FS1 and TBS but not ESPN, ESPN2 or MLB Network. Check out the charts on this Fubo PDF to see which RSNs it offers with local MLB coverage.
All of the live TV streaming services above offer free trials, allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our massive streaming services guide.
MLB
MLB.TV subscription: Best for out-of-market games
Major League Baseball’s official streaming service is great for following your favorite team if you live outside its TV market. But because of the 90-minute blackout described above, it’s less useful for following the home team.
Here are MLB.TV’s 2019 pricing options for the remainder of the season:
- Pay $27 for the rest of the season to be able to watch every out-of-market game live or on-demand, and the in-market (home) team with a 90-minute delay from the end of the game. And it’s free for college students!
- Pay $16 for the rest of the season to watch a single, out-of-market team. If you only have interest in watching your favorite team play (and don’t live in its TV market), then this plan can save you a few bucks. You sacrifice, however, the ability to switch over to a potential no-hitter in progress elsewhere or any other exciting matchup or moment that does not involve your team.
Both MLB.TV plans also include streams of home and away radio broadcasts. The radio broadcasts aren’t subject to the blackout rule, so you can listen to home team games live.
MLB’s At Bat app is a great way to watch games on your phone or tablet — or get alerts on your watch.
Sarah Tew/CNET
MLB At Bat add-on
The MLB At Bat app is great on phones and even better on tablets. If you purchased an MLB.TV subscription (as outlined above), you can log in to your account and watch games live in the app. There is a cheaper subscription option for use with the mobile app only, but it’s limited in what it lets you watch.
You can buy an At Bat subscription via the MLB At Bat app. It costs $20 a year (or $3 a month) and lets you listen to the home or away radio broadcasts — baseball is the only sport I can listen to on the radio — and watch one game per day during the season. You can’t choose which game you want to watch; you’re stuck with the MLB.TV Free Game of the Day.
Watch this:
These apps will get you ready for baseball season
1:53
Originally published earlier this year. Updated with new pricing for MLB.TV and the 2019 pennant races.