Baseball is back — more or less. The 2019 Major league Baseball season officially opens on Wednesday with the first of a two-game set matching the Seattle Mariners against last season’s American League second Wild Card team, the Oakland Athletics. But as MLB.com notes, for the first time since 2012, the season opener with a two-game series played at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. MLB also played opening series at the Tokyo Dome in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 — with the Mariners and Athletics matching up in the 2012 Tokyo Dome opener. But this series also features what could be a memorable and special moment that will make it worthwhile for baseball fans to get up early to watch the game live stream from Japan.
To find out how to watch a live stream of the Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball 2019 Opening Day game, see the streaming information at the bottom of this article. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Japan Standard Time at the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, March 20. In the United States, that start time will be 5:35 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday morning, or 2:35 a.m. Pacific.
The greatest Japanese-born player ever to play in the Major leagues, Ichiro Suzuki, will appear in what are almost certainly the final games of his certain-Hall of Fame, 18-year career in MLB, according to Public Radio International .
Ichiro, as he is known, began his pro baseball career at age 18 with the Japanese Pacific League team Orix Blue Wave. After putting up a.353 career batting average and 1,278 hits in a nine-year Japanese career, he signed with the Mariners for the 2001 season, creating an immediate sensation — winning both the American League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards while leading the league with a.350 batting average and 242 base hits, according to Baseball Reference stats.
With a lifetime batting average of.311 and 3,089 hist in his U.S. career, Baseball Referenc e rates Ichiro as a certain entrant into the Hall of Fame — making him eligible five years after he finished his career this week back in his home country, at the Tokyo Dome.
The full Major League schedule opens next week, on Thursday, March 28, per MLB.com .
To watch a free live stream of the MLB Opening Day Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland Athletics showdown, log in to WatchESPN , the streaming service offered by the sports broadcasting giant ESPN. WatchESPN is free of charge to anyone with cable or satellite TV login credentials and is available through the ESPN and WatchESPN apps for mobile devices, as well as on set-top streaming boxes, such as the Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire.
But another way to watch the 2019 MLB opener, Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland Athletics with a free live stream but without a cable subscription is for fans to sign up for a free trial of one of the “over the top” streaming TV packages, such as Sling TV , YouTube TV , or DirecTV Now . All of those services require credit card information and will charge subscription fees. But they each offer a seven-day free trial period, a weeklong trial during which fans can watch the Mariners vs. A’s game in Tokyo live stream for free.
To watch the Seattle Mariners vs. Oakland Athletics game live stream in Japan and around the world, the best and only option is MLB.TV , which carries a monthly, or one-time-annual, subscription fee.