Originally the Tigers and Athletics looked like they might be blacked out on Saturday due to national TV obligations, but it appears Major League Baseball is going to let the game air.
↵The Detroit News reports that Fox and MLB have agreed to air the Tiger-Athletics contest set for 4:07 p.m. Saturday. The reason? The Tigers could possibly clinch the American League Central that day. From the News:
↵↵↵The game between the Tigers and A's begins at 4:07 p.m. and was to bump against Fox's national telecast of the Rays-Red Sox game at Boston. National telecasts on Fox and on ESPN must, according to the networks' contracts, avoid conflict with local telecasts of other big-league games.That would have wiped out Fox's telecast, but things changed - the Tigers kept winning.
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A Red Sox game on national TV? Yeah, like they're never on. Moving on.
↵However, the division may be a moot point by Saturday anyway. With Wednesday's comeback win over Chicago, the Tigers pushed their magic number down to two over Cleveland and one over Chicago; if Detroit wins the first two games in Oakland, they could have the division won by Friday. Any combination of Tigers wins and losses by Cleveland equaling two clinches for Detroit.
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