YouTube to broadcast 21 games as part of 3rd MLB season

NEW YORK (AP) — YouTube will broadcast a Major League Baseball package of games for a third season,

The series of 21 telecasts start on Wednesday, April 7 at 1:10 p.m. EDT when the Boston Red Sox host the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays in the finale of a two-game series, MLB and YouTube said Monday.

The games are exclusive and will not be televised by club broadcast partners.

The second game will be on Thursday, April 22 when Houston hosts the Los Angeles Angels at 8;05 p.m. EDT, and the third will be when Cleveland hosts AL Central champion Minnesota at 1:10 p.m. EDT.

YouTube telecasts include live chats. YouTube broadcast 13 games in 2019 and says it generated an average of 1.2 million live views. It broadcast four games last September during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

MLB's primary national agreements are with Fox, Turner and ESPN.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports