Atlanta Braves saddled with the early game on Wednesday

Game times for Wednesday are out, which do no favors for Atlanta Braves fans.

So are any of us Atlanta Braves fans starting to develop some slight body aches this morning?  Something that might cause you to skip a day of work on Wednesday?

In this age of paranoia about any illness being somehow COVID-19-related, that might not be a good thing, but being home on Wednesday might be the best way to watch the Braves first playoff game against the Cincinnati Reds.

UPDATE:  The Astro/Twins game is 1PM.  Passan corrected himself after this tweet was sent.

Yes:  there are eight playoff games that will run for at least 12 hours on Wednesday, and unfortunately, the Atlanta Braves did not get anything resembling a prime time slot.

The Braves game will start at Noon Eastern time at Truist Park

, and it also has the distinction of being one of only two games (with Houston at Minnesota) starting in direct competition with one another

.

It’s hard to imagine the logic or perceived network viewing metrics that go into such decisions, but I do have some surprise that the Braves aren’t in the 4pm slot occupied by the Toronto vs. Tampa Bay game.

Clearly, the Yankees were going to get an evening contest, and there it is:  7pm at Cleveland.  The West Coast teams all had to start later, and with 3 of those games, they could not begin before 3pm Eastern (Noon Pacific)… those are more-or-less understandable.

So it apparently came down to ‘Noon’ or ‘4pm’ for the Braves and the guess here is that Blue Jays — with an entire country watching them — won out.

On the bright side:  a 4pm start in Atlanta would bring lots of issues with stadium shadows as games transition into the evening hours, so perhaps that will allow the Braves hitters to see Trevor Bauer’s pitches a little better (we’ll take any advantage we can get, right?).

Otherwise, things look perfect for baseball:  temperatures in the low 70’s and Sunny with a light breeze toward left field expected.

But I am starting to feel something coming on… might need a day off later this week.