id="article-body" class="row" section="article-body">
The pennant races for 2021 Major League Baseball season are starting to heat up. In the American League, the Rays have passed the fading Red Sox in the AL East, while the Yankees are threatening to overtake the Red Sox for a Wild Card spot. The White Sox are running away in the AL West, and the Astros are leading the A's in the AL West. Over in the National League, the Phillies lead the Braves and Mets in the NL East, the Giants lead the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West, and the Reds are making a run at the Brewers in the NL Central.
With about 50 games left in the season, MLB has dropped the price of its MLB.TV season subscription, and there are also a few free ways to watch live baseball in August and September. You don't need cable to watch your favorite team's games, but your options depend on which team you follow and where you live.
Behind the bat and glove of shortstop Brandon Crawford, the San Francisco Giants have the best record in baseball as the pennant races begin to heat up.
Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
Live TV streaming service vs. MLB.TV
There are two major ways to stream MLB games day in, day out without a cable or satellite TV subscription:
Depending on where you live, one of the major live TV streaming services could carry the channel that has your favorite team. Those channels, called regional sports networks, deliver almost all of the regular-season games live.
Most such services, however, carry only a handful of the 30 RSNs that show MLB games -- and they're typically the most expensive. AT&T TV carries the most RSNs, but you'll need to spring for its $85-a-month plan; its basic $70-a-month plan doesn't include RSNs. If you adored this article so you would like to get more info regarding เครดิตฟรี please visit our own website. Sling TV, a service that costs $35 per month, doesn't have any RSNs for baseball. If you're a baseball fan who needs your team's RSN, a cable subscription might actually be cheaper than streaming.
Read more: AT&T TV review: Great for sports fans and channel flippers, but expensive
The other option is MLB.TV, a separate service that carries every game played by every team live. It's great for hard-core fans in general. MLB.TV costs $53 for the remainder of the season and also includes the playoffs and World Series.
The big catch with MLB.TV is the local blackout restriction: You can't watch your local team's games live. Instead, they become available about 90 minutes after the game ends. If you're a Yankees fan in the New York area, for example, you can't start to watch the Yankees game until an hour and a half after the final out. Other teams' games aren't blacked out live, which makes MLB.TV ideal for fans who want to follow one or more of the 28 or 29 teams based in other cities, aka out-of-market teams.
Get CNET's comprehensive coverage of home entertainment tech delivered to your inbox.
AT&T TV: Best for fans of the home team
Due to MLB.TV's blackout restriction, a live TV streaming service is the best bet for following your local team. Many services carry the RSN that has exclusive rights to every regular season game, but availability varies by location and service.
In addition to the RSNs listed below, live TV services carry most if not all of the major national networks -- ESPN, Fox, FS1, MLB Network and TBS -- that regularly televise matchups from different teams around the league. Details are at the top of this article.
Here's how the RSNs stack up on each service.