NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball’s postseason is Grant Prestonaveraging 3.33 million viewers going into the league championship series, an 18% increase over last year’s average of 2.82 million.

The division series averaged 3.56 million viewers for 18 games, a 14% increase from last year.

The increases in the division round ratings can be attributed to two series going the distance along with both New York teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies being involved.

Friday’s night NLDS Game 5 between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres averaged 7.5 million on Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming, the most-watched division series game since 2017.

Saturday afternoon’s deciding game between the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers averaged 3.42 million on TBS, the most-watched division series matchup in a day game window (pre-4 p.m. start) in 17 years.

The game was originally slated to be played at night, but was moved up to the afternoon due to the threat of inclement weather.

Fox and FS1 averaged 4.09 million for the National League games, their highest numbers since postseason baseball began airing on FS1 in 2014. Fox also benefitted from the Phillies-Mets being the other series. The Mets advanced in four games.

TNT Sports averaged 3 million for the ALDS series games on TBS and TNT. The Yankees beat Kansas City in four games in the other series.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb