Phillies-Cardinals: Game time, channel, how to watch and stream MLB playoffs

Good luck finding Friday’s Phillies playoff game against the St. Louis Cardinals on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Unlike with the NBA, the first round of the MLB playoffs doesn’t air on regional sports networks. So the best-of-three wild-card series against the Cardinals will be broadcast exclusively by ESPN, beginning with Friday’s game at 2 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

Phillies ace Zach Wheeler will make his first postseason start. He’ll go up against left-hander Jose Quintana, who had a bounce-back season for the Cardinals after struggling last year with the Los Angeles Angels.

This is the first year with MLB’s expanded wild-card series after more than a decade under the “win-and-you’re-in” single-game wild-card. The entire best-of-three series will be played at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, and if the Phillies win, they’ll face the Atlanta Braves in the best-of-five divisional series next week.

The Phillies were 4-3 against the Cardinals this season, including 2-2 in St. Louis. The only time the teams have faced each other in the playoffs was 2011, when the Cardinals defeated the Phillies three games to two.

Here’s everything you need to know to watch Game 1 of the Phillies-Cardinals wild-card series:

Phillies-Cardinals is scheduled to begin at 2:07 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

Calling the game will be Yankees announcer Michael Kay and former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. The two cohosted an alternate Sunday Night Baseball broadcast this year modeled after ESPN’s successful “Manningcast,” and Rodriguez called a Braves-Cardinals game in July alongside Mike Monaco.

If you’re looking for a little Philly flair in the broadcast, you could always tune into 94.1 WIP, where longtime Phillies announcer Scott Franzke will call the game alongside Larry Andersen, who is well-rested thanks to a reduced schedule in which he called just 40 of the team’s 162 games.

Bill Kulik and Oscar Budejen will call Phillies-Cardinals in Spanish on La Unika 1680 AM.

Phillies-Cardinals will stream on the ESPN app and on ESPN’s website, though it will only be available to those with a cable subscription. It won’t be available to stream on ESPN+

The game will also stream on any so-called skinny bundle that carries the ESPN, including fuboTV, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and DirecTV Stream. Most offer a free trial.

While Tom McCarthy, John Kruk, and the rest of the Phillies TV announcers will be watching the games from home, NBC Sports Philadelphia will still do pre- and postgame coverage for each game.

On Friday, Phillies Pregame Live will air at 1:30 p.m. featuring Michael Barkann, Rickie Bottalico, and Ben Davis, with Taryn Hatcher reporting from St. Louis. They’ll all return for Phillies Postgame Live following the game.

* Game 3 would begin at 7:37 p.m. on ESPN if the Padres-Mets series ends after two games.