Due to a marathon that ran past the streets of San Diego on Sunday, the Padres game had to be pushed back to a later time than the standard lunch start. Because ESPN has an exclusivity window for Sunday night, that meant that the Astros-Padres game was not broadcast anywhere in the Houston area. Jordan Lyles is literally the only thing exciting about the Astros, and Houstonians were forced to miss his second start because of a silly rule that is inconsistently applied.
↵For instance, the Red Sox managed to find a way (read: lots of people whining) to get their non-ESPN Sunday night game on the air when they played a doubleheader. I didn't watch Sunday Night Baseball that particular night, but I can guarantee you that as it happened, there were plenty of Red Sox updates and highlights given from the studio.
↵I mean look, I get that the Red Sox are a have and the Astros are a have not. Fine. We'll all be bludgeoned over the head with overanalysis about Carl Crawford before we ever see Lyles discussed on Baseball Tonight. But why were Astros fans robbed of a game that they otherwise would have seen when other teams are allowed to break that rule?
↵It's just one more reason I will happily mock MLB should they draw another non-power team World Series and get the poor ratings they deserve because of it. Reaping what you sow, and such.
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