A wild card playoff game between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies featured a dramatic late-game home run by Austin Riley that gave Atlanta a series lead. However, the broadcast revealed thousands of empty seats at the stadium, creating poor optics for Major League Baseball as it attempts to grow the sport's popularity against the NFL.

Major League Baseball staggers postseason game start times throughout the day (2pm, 5pm, 8pm and 10pm Eastern) to prevent games from competing for viewership. However, the 2pm start time on a Tuesday meant many fans could not attend due to work and school commitments, whilst west coast viewers faced an 11am local start during their working day. The article argues this scheduling strategy, designed before modern streaming technology, is now counterproductive—contemporary viewing platforms offer multi-view capabilities that allow fans to watch multiple games simultaneously without the need for staggered start times.