A pair of National League West foes open their 2017 season a little early, as the San Francisco Giants visit the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon at Chase Field in Phoenix, part of a three-game slate on opening day.
Giants vs. Diamondbacks 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and how to watch online
Madison Bumgarner starts his fourth straight opening day for San Francisco.
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
The 4 p.m. ET game will be televised by ESPN2, though the national broadcast will be blacked out in the Giants’ television market. Online streaming of the game will provided by WatchESPN.
Rather than just a single Sunday Night Baseball broadcast before the traditional Monday opening day, the ESPN family of networks have three games scheduled for Sunday. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays start things off on Sunday, and the nightcap is the defending champion Chicago Cubs battling their rival St. Louis Cardinals on the road.
The middle game will feature two of the best pitchers in baseball dueling in Arizona, with Madison Bumgarner toeing the rubber for the Giants and Zack Greinke on the mound for the Diamondbacks.
Bumgarner was 15-9 with a 2.74 ERA in 34 starts for the Giants in 2016, his fourth straight season with a sub-3.00 ERA. The 27-year-old workhorse has topped 200 innings in each of his last six years, including career highs in both innings (2262⁄3) and strikeouts (251) last year.
This is Bumgarner’s fourth consecutive opening day start.
Greinke is looking to rebound after a rough first season in Arizona, following a massive six-year, $206.5 million free agent contract before last season. The right-hander was 13-7 with a 4.37 ERA in 26 starts with the Diamondbacks in 2016, with 134 strikeouts and 41 walks in 1582⁄3 innings.
On Sunday, Greinke will be making his third career opening day start, and his second in as many years with Arizona.
This will be the first regular season game for Torey Lovullo as manager, hired this winter by Arizona after three consecutive losing seasons and five straight years without a playoff appearance.
San Francisco won 13 of 19 games against Arizona in 2016, including nine of 10 at Chase Field.
Sunday’s game is the first of a four-game set between the Giants and Diamondbacks. The two teams get Monday off before resuming the series on Tuesday night.
Dave Fleming will call play-by-play for ESPN2, alongside analysts Eduardo Perez and Dallas Braden.
Giants vs. Diamondbacks info
Where: Chase Field, Phoenix, Ariz.
Time: 4 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN2
Online: WatchESPN
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