ESPN To Air MLB Season-Opening Action Sunday, Monday

ESPN’s new Sunday Night Baseball team will debut during the company’s seven-game, two-day season-opening coverage on April 3-4, by calling two games in 24 hours.

Jessica Mendoza, who became the first female analyst for a nationally-televised MLB Postseason game last October, will begin her full-time role on Sunday Night Baseball, alongside Aaron Boone, who is also making his full-time debut. They will join Dan Shulman and Buster Olney to call Opening Night Baseball: New York Mets at Kansas City Royals, Sunday, April 3, at 8:30 p.m. ET. The quartet will then travel to San Diego on Monday, April 4, to call the Padres Opening Day matchup against the Los Angeles Dodgers at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

The new ESPN Monday Night Baseball team will also make its debut on April 3, as analysts Eduardo Perez and Curt Schilling will be joined by Dave Flemming (one of ESPN’s Monday Night Baseball play-by-play commentators) to call the Tampa Bay Rays-Toronto Blue Jays opener at 4 p.m. on ESPN2. The trio will also call two games in 24 hours as they continue with the Seattle Mariners-Texas Rangers opener on April 4, at 4 p.m. on ESPN.

The ESPN Wednesday Night Baseball team – Jon Sciambi with analysts Rick Sutcliffe and Doug Glanville – will pull season-opening double-duty as well. The crew will call the St. Louis Cardinals-Pittsburgh Pirates opener on April 3, at 1 p.m. on ESPN, followed by the New York Yankees-Houston Astros opener on April 4, at 1 p.m. on ESPN.

ESPN will also debut a new Baseball Tonight: Sunday Night Countdown team for 2016. Host Karl Ravech will be joined by reporter Tim Kurkjian and newcomer Dallas Braden for Sunday Night Baseball pre-game shows throughout the year. On April 3, the team will be on-site in Kansas City for shows at 12:30 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. leading into the Mets-Royals telecast. The team will then call the action for the Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim opener on April 4, at 10 p.m. on ESPN2.

ESPN.com will have its largest MLB Opening Day on-site presence ever this season. For the first time, the site will have reporters at every Opening Day game. In addition, SportsCenter will have Jen Lada reporting from Yankee Stadium on April 4, while Britt McHenry will be reporting from Cleveland on April 4 for the Indians-Boston Red Sox opener.

In total, ESPN will televise approximately 12 continuous hours of MLB coverage on both Sunday, April 3 and Monday, April 4.