MLB Returns to NBC Sports This Week With Opening Day Doubleheader Thursday and Sunday Night Baseball

Major League Baseball returns to NBC Sports this week, with a star-studded Thursday doubleheader on Opening Day presented by Adobe, followed three days later by the debut of Sunday Night Baseball.

NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2026 MLB season begins this Thursday, March 26 at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, as reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates visit four-time All-Star Juan Soto and the New York Mets at Citi Field. Matt Vasgersian will provide play-by-play for Pirates-Mets alongside analysts Al Leiter and Neil Walker.

Then at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock – in the only primetime game on Opening Day – 2023 MLB Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll and the Arizona Diamondbacks face four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani and the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Calling the game will be play-by-play voice Jason Benetti accompanied by analysts Luis Gonzalez and Orel Hershiser.

Both Opening Day games will feature on-location pregame shows. Ahmed Fareed will host the Pirates-Mets pregame at Citi Field alongside analyst Adam Ottavino. Leading into the primetime game, Bob Costas will be joined by analyst and three-time Dodgers’ NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium, where the Dodgers will raise their World Series championship banner.

Sunday Night Baseball Debuts on Peacock and NBCSN this Sunday, March 29 at 7 p.m. ET, Featuring Matchup of AL Division Champions as 2025 MLB Home Run King Cal Raleigh and Seattle Mariners Host Jose Ramirez and Cleveland Guardians

This Sunday, March 29, Sunday Night Baseball will make its season debut as seven-time All-Star Jose Ramirez and the Cleveland Guardians visit 2025 MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh and the Seattle Mariners at 7 p.m. ET on Peacock and NBCSN. Both teams won AL division titles in 2025.

This week’s Sunday Night Baseball announce team features Benetti joined in the booth by analysts Rick Manning and Ryan Rowland-Smith.

Manning played 13 seasons as an outfielder in MLB, spending nearly nine seasons with Cleveland before being traded to Milwaukee, where he finished his career. Since 1990, he has served as an MLB television analyst for Cleveland broadcasts, making him the longest tenured commentator in team history.

Rowland-Smith spent four of his five MLB seasons with the Seattle Mariners (2007-2010) as both a starting pitcher and reliever. In 2017, Rowland-Smith joined Root Sports Northwest as an analyst, appearing on pregame and postgame coverage for Mariners broadcasts. He became the primary analyst for Mariners broadcasts in 2025.

Ahmed Fareed will host the Guardians-Mariners pregame show.

Peacock MLB Hub Debuts This Week

Peacock will feature a dedicated MLB Hub, a one-stop destination for fans to access live games, team hubs and highlights. This season, baseball fans will also be able to enjoy popular Peacock features, such as Catch up with Key Plays, if they are tuning in late; Live in Browse, which displays the live game on the Peacock home page for instant context about the matchup and allows viewers to immediately join the live game presentation; and MLB Live Picks, a mobile mini-game for fans to predict the winners.

The Sunday Stretch whip-around show will also stream live on Peacock starting May 3, providing viewers with the most compelling action in real time and on replay so they won’t miss a single run or key play. In partnership with Telemundo and Universo, Peacock will provide extensive Spanish-language coverage.

Peacock “Game of the Day” begins this Thursday, March 26 with Los Angeles Angels at Houston Astros Live at 4:10 p.m. ET on Peacock

One out-of-market game will be streamed nationally* on Peacock nearly every day of the season, beginning Thursday, March 26, with 11-time All-Star Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels visiting Jose Altuve and the Houston Astros at 4:10 p.m. ET on Peacock. The Peacock “Game of the Day” will allow viewers to watch either the home or visiting team presentation.

^{(*Note: The Peacock “Game of the Day” will not be available in the competing team markets, where it will be presented by the local rightsholder)}

NBC Sports’ MLB Tradition

NBC Sports has a distinguished history with Major League Baseball. The first-ever MLB television broadcast was a 1939 Cincinnati Reds-Brooklyn Dodgers doubleheader on W2XBS (the precursor to WNBC-TV) in New York. NBC Sports was a home to the first World Series broadcast in 1947, the first All-Star Game nationally broadcast in 1952, and has televised 39 World Series – more than any other network.

From 1957-2000, NBC Sports was home to a wealth of baseball programming, including Game of the Week and Monday Night Baseball telecasts, more than 30 All-Star Games, and countless iconic Postseason moments. For the 2022-23 seasons, Peacock was the exclusive home of MLB Sunday Leadoff, a first-of-its-kind Sunday morning presentation featuring a unique three-announcer broadcast booth with one analyst with expertise on each team joining the play-by-play voice.

About NBCUniversal and MLB

Major League Baseball and NBCUniversal announced a three-year media rights agreement that returns baseball to NBC and Peacock with a showcase package of exclusive games and events beginning with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers raising their banner leading into a primetime matchup (vs. Arizona Diamondbacks) on March 26, 2026 – the first full day of games in the 2026 MLB season. The Dodgers’ opener will be the only primetime MLB game on Opening Day.

NBCUniversal’s new MLB agreement is headlined by exclusive packages across NBC, NBCSN and Peacock, including primetime’s Sunday Night Baseball, a Peacock-exclusive MLB Sunday Leadoff package of games followed by a Sunday afternoon whip-around show, an exclusive “Opening Day” primetime game (March 26), a new Labor Day primetime tradition, and the entire Wild Card round of the Postseason.

Sunday Night Baseball on NBC/Peacock now joins NBC Sports’ presentations of Sunday Night Football (NFL) and Sunday Night Basketball (NBA) to deliver year-round primetime sports programming on the same night each week – a broadcast network first.