MLB Network garnered its best-ever regular season primetime average on the night Derek Jeter added one last chapter to his memorable career.
On Saturday night, baseball's in-house service may score its all-time game viewership mark with its exclusive presentation of the second contest of the National League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers at 9:30 p.m. (ET). The Dodgers will look to even matters after Cy Young front-runner Clayn Kershaw stunningly surrendered a big lead and the Cards held on for a 10-9 win on Friday.
For those keeping a Nielsen scorecard: MLBN's top game telecast was Game 2 of the 2012 American League Division Series between the Oakland A's and Detroit Tigers that drew almost 1.26 million viewers.
MLBN tallied its best regular-season ever in primetime with the 2014 campaign, averaging 279,000 watchers for games in the daypart, up 6% from 264,000 in 2013. The 2014 average was aided in part by the 837,000 who tuned in to watch Jeter's last game in New York Yankees' pinstripes, as MLBN enjoyed its best ever regular-season primetime mark with 870,000 watchers on Sept. 25.
The 2014 season marked the fifth straight year of MLBN's primetime game viewership growth. Network officials said the 2014 delivery was 56% higher than 2010's 179,000 primetime game viewers.
Flagship studio show MLB Tonight notched its best ever regular season, with an average audience of 140,000 viewers.
Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds, Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal will call Game 2 of Cards-Dodgers.
The network's second game 2014 postseason game will feature the Washington Nationals visiting the San Francisco Giants in the other NLDS Series on Monday, Oct. 6.
