This will be a look at the best Sunday Night Baseball games of all time. The games on the list will be in chronological order. The 2024 season will be the 35th season for the program. It debuted in 1990 and has aired on ESPN networks since its inception. In its history, SNB has had four primary play-by-play announcers. From 1990 through the 2010 season, the team of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan called the games. After the 2010 season, ESPN did not renew their contracts in a controversial decision. Miller was succeeded by Dan Shulman as the play-by-play voice of SNB. After seven seasons, Shulman left SNB before the 2018 season, and Matt Vasgersian replaced him.
Heading into the 2024 season, ESPN announced a portion of the Sunday Night Baseball schedule for this season on Wednesday. The first game is a matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 31. This will begin the third season for the SNB announcing team of Karl Ravech with analysts David Cone and Eduardo Perez and field reporter Buster Olney. It will be the 14th season for Olney as the SNB field reporter. In the batch of games announced by ESPN, 10 different teams are slated to appear on SNB in the first half of the season. Additional games on the SNB schedule will be announced by ESPN at a later date.
The Best Sunday Night Baseball Games
Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees – May 28, 2000
In a notable edition of one of the most common SNB matchups, the Boston Red Sox faced the New York Yankees in a battle between two legendary pitchers. The two starting pitchers, Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens, both pitched the entire game. In addition, the two pitchers had a combined 22 strikeouts and allowed only nine hits in total. The Red Sox defeated the Yankees 2-0 after Trot Nixon hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning. Of the 18 position players in the game, only six of them got hits. For the Yankees, Derek Jeter and Ricky Ledee recorded hits, while on the Red Sox, Nixon, Jeff Frye, Carl Everett, and John Valentin each recorded hits.
Atlanta Braves at Washington Nationals – March 30, 2008
The first regular season game in Nationals Park history was a matchup between the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals on SNB. In the first inning, Christian Guzman recorded the first hit at Nationals Park for the home team off of Tim Hudson. The Nationals would take a 2-0 lead in the first inning as well. In the fourth inning, the Braves responded with a Chipper Jones home run to make it a 2-1 game. In the ninth inning, the Braves tied the game on a passed ball, resulting in a Jon Rauch blown save. When the Nationals came to the plate in the bottom half of the inning, Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to give them a 3-2 win to open their new ballpark.
Ryan Zimmerman was a Nationals legend from his first game at Nationals Park when he hit a walk off bomb. Amazing career. pic.twitter.com/0BonLmqJva
— Ben Porter (@Ben13Porter) February 15, 2022
Seattle Mariners at Chicago Cubs – July 31, 2016
This SNB game between the Seattle Mariners and the Chicago Cubs saw a wild comeback. The Mariners held a 6-0 lead after three innings. At that point, the Cubs pulled starting pitcher Brian Matusz from the game. In the fifth inning, the Cubs started to chip away at the deficit making it a 6-2 game. However, the Cubs still trailed 6-3 entering the ninth inning. The Mariners put Steve Cishek in to close out the game. Cishek proceeded to blow the save, allowing three runs to tie the game. In the 12th inning, Jon Lester came in to pinch hit and laid down a bunt that scored the winning run to give the Cubs a dramatic 7-6 comeback win.
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