MLB insults Cleveland Guardians with early start times for second-straight postseason

Major League Baseball might care about their smaller markets, but they surely do not show it very often.

The Cleveland Guardians will face the Detroit Tigers in a deciding Game 3 at Progressive Field on Thursday at 3:08 p.m.

This is the third consecutive day game that these two teams will play, with Games 1 and 2 of the Wild Card series starting at 1:08 p.m.

Many baseball fans around Cleveland went to sleep on Wednesday night not understanding what time the Guardians would play. That’s unacceptable in the playoffs.

It feels like wasted breath to be upset about start times. After all, the Guardians were in the same day baseball timeslot last season when they faced the Tigers in their first round of the MLB Playoffs. Surely, Rob Manfred would never let his television networks miss out on the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or Los Angeles Dodgers.

But there has to be some sort of middle ground.

Baseball’s biggest problem for years has been the lack of marketing around the sport. Playing meaningful postseason games in the middle of a work day does very little to solve that issue.

Cleveland is a working-class city that loves their sports teams. Yet still, they have not been able to sell out Progressive Field because of these start times. Fans are at work while the games are being played in front of empty seats. That just does not make any sense when you factor in how pivotal these games are.

Not saying anything new

But it infuriates me that Cleveland always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to MLB Playoffs start times.

Feels like wasted breath just talking about it because nothing will change, but that’s part of what’s wrong with the MLB.
— Nick Pedone (@NickPedone12) October 2, 2025

The Guardians have been the best story in all of baseball – and arguably all of sports – for the last month. They were forced to make October in a pressure cooker, overcoming a 15.5 game deficit to win the American League Central Division, a historic feat.

Battling the same Tigers that they dethroned to win the division should be a massive storyline. The Guardians have showcased aces Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee in this series, getting masterful performances from both pitchers. Yet still, the average baseball fan probably doesn’t know either young pitcher or the impact they’ve had on this ball club.

If the Guardians are able to get past the Tigers during Thursday’s elimination game, fans will get their wish of seeing playoff baseball in person. The winner of this series has a date in the American League Divisional Series with the Seattle Mariners.

But it should not come to that. Cleveland is a town that sat around without playoff baseball for 40 years, as the Indians did not make the postseason from 1955 until 1994. There’s nothing quite like playoff baseball, and more fans should have the opportunity to enjoy it.