Baseball fans get a free treat Thursday, when they can watch the Los Angeles Dodgers face the New York Mets live online at no cost and legally, in the first of a critical four-game series that could play a significant role in determining each team’s playoff chances.
The Dodgers lead the National League West by just 2 and a half games over the San Francisco Giants, while in the NL East, the Mets trail the Washington Nationals by three games.
But Thursday’s game also features another attraction for baseball aficionados who want to watch the matchup live online. The Dodgers’ 27-year-old lefty ace Clayton Kershaw, who last season recorded a streak of 41 scoreless innings, enters the Citi Field showdown carrying a 20-inning run of shutout innings.
With the Mets at a mediocre ninth in the National League in scoring, averaging just 3.46 runs per game, Kershaw should have a pretty good chance of keeping the streak alive — before Friday, when his teammate, Zack Greinke, takes the mound with his own 43 and two thirds inning scoreless streak.
To watch the July 23 Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets National League matchup live online for free, use the streaming link in the final paragraph of this article. First pitch at Citi Field in Flushing Meadows, New York, is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Eastern Time, 4:10 p.m. Pacific.
With Kershaw on the mound, the Dodgers would seem to have a pretty clear edge in the game. The lefty, who was the Dodgers first-round draft pick — seventh overall — in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in Texas, not only has a 0.00 ERA in his last 20 innings, his ERA over his last 10 starts is a microscopic 1.36 — striking out 101 in just 72 and two thirds innings, while walking only 11.
On the other hand, the Mets will counter with 42-year-old veteran Bartolo Colon, who made his Major League debut when Kershaw was just 9-years-old. Colon is somehow still hanging on, pitching for his ninth team in 18 years. In fact, Colon has been around for so long that he pitched a season for the now-defunct Montreal Expos, who moved to Washington a decade ago and became the Nationals.
But Colon is pitching like a 42-year-old, bringing a 6.18 ERA and 0-4 record in his last five starts into the Thursday game against the visiting Dodgers.
The series winds up a tough, 10-game East Coast road trip for Los Angeles, who have gone 3-3 in the trip’s first six games against Washington and the Atlanta Braves. The Mets are coming off a six-game away swing, which ended at 2-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the Nationals.
To watch Thursday’s Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Mets game live online free, go to MLB.TV at this link , where the streaming subscription service of Major League Baseball is offering the matchup as its “Free Game of the Day,” meaning the game may be streamed live by anyone, without a fee. The game can also be viewed for free using the MLB At Bat app for mobile devices, as well as on the MLB channel offered by set-top boxes such as the Apple TV and Roku.
[Image: Greg Flume / Getty Images]
