Major League Baseball’s postseason has been knocking it out of the park. The National League Championship Series’ first game between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday averaged 8.26 million viewers across Fox Sports’ TV networks and streaming, making it the most watched LCS game on any network since 2009, according to Fox Sports.
The league said it recorded increases in attendance, fan engagement, streaming and viewership, something it attributes to the shorter games — helped by a pitch clock introduced last season — and rule changes that have created more in-game action. “The increased enthusiasm baseball fans of all ages have shown the last two seasons is evident in all of the ways we track fan engagement,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a release.