Phillies-Giants game not on NBC Sports Philadelphia, streaming on Apple TV+

The Phillies face the San Francisco Giants in a four-game series beginning tonight in South Philadelphia, but you won’t be able to find today’s game on TV.

Instead, you’ll have to log into Apple TV+, the tech giant’s subscription streaming service, which is airing Friday Night Baseball for the third straight season. The package features two exclusive MLB games each week, with tonight’s Toronto Blue Jays-Washington Nationals game also streaming alongside the Phillies-Giants.

The timing is … annoying. The Phillies are off to their best start since 2011, just set a franchise record for April wins (19), and are coming off a 7-3 road trip, powered by arguably the best rotation in baseball at the moment. It’s a dramatic contrast with the previous two years, which saw the Phillies being forced to dig themselves out of early holes, one of which claimed the job of former manager Joe Girardi.

Aaron Nola, who is 4-1 this season with a 3.20 ERA, is scheduled to take the mount tonight. He’ll face off against longtime reliever-turned-Giants-starter Jordan Hicks, who is 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA.

If you want to avoid the hassle of going through Apple TV+, you can tune in to 94.1 WIP, with Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen calling all four games. But if you want to watch the action, here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream this weekend’s Phillies games:

Tonight, you’ll need Apple TV+ to watch the Phillies

First up is Friday’s game against the Giants, which will stream exclusively on Apple TV+ beginning at 6:30 p.m.

This is the third year of Apple’s Friday Night Baseball package, which features two games a week. The games are behind Apple TV+’s subscription paywall, which currently runs $9.99 a month (though they do offer a free seven-day trial to new subscribers).

Once you have an account set up, all you need to do is download the Apple TV+ app or watch the game on their website (The Apple TV+ app isn’t available on Android phones). Here is a full set of instructions.

Calling the game will be play-by-play announcer Wayne Randazzo, who will be joined in the broadcast by one-time Phillies pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who signed with the team in 2012 but made just three Grapefruit League appearances.

Reporter Heidi Watney will report from Citizens Bank Park.

If you don’t want to set up an Apple TV+ account, you might find the game at bars and restaurants around Philadelphia, thanks to Apple’s distribution deal with DirecTV. Just call ahead to make sure.

This is the first of two Apple TV+ games on the Phillies schedule so far this season. The second is on June 21 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which happens to be the night the Phillies are holding a retirement ceremony for Cole Hamels.

Saturday’s Phillies game will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The second game of the four-game series will be back on NBC Sports Philadelphia on Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

Tom McCarthy, in his 17th season as the Phillies television voice, will call the game. Joining him will be former
Phillies first baseman John Kruk, who got a lot of attention last week during a broadcast after sharing a wild story about playing in a prison baseball game in Mexico.

Phillies Pregame Live, hosted by Michael Barkann, is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Phillies Postgame Live will immediately follow the final out.

Ranger Suarez (5-0, 1.32 ERA), who has the second-best pitching record and ERA in baseball, is scheduled to take the mound against Giants righty Keaton Winn (3-3, 3.18 ERA).

McCarthy and Kruk will also call the Phillies fourth and final game against the Giants Monday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 p.m.

Sunday’s Phillies-Giants game is on ESPN

The Phillies are back on ESPN Sunday night, but this time there will be no Alex Rodriguez.

While the former New York Yankee’s slugger ended his run calling games for ESPN in 2021, he continued to appear on ESPN2 as part of a KayRod simulcast with Yankees announcer Michael Kay. But A-Rod signed an contract extension with Fox last year that reportedly required him to be exclusive to their network, so no KayRod this season during ESPN games.

Back for their third straight season calling Sunday Night Baseball are Karl Ravech, David Cone, and Eduardo Perez. Longtime ESPN reporter Buster Olney will be on hand at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies will also play on ESPN June 9, the second of two games they’ll be playing in London this season against the New York Mets.

Some Phillies games could end up on Roku

Phillies fans might need to sign up for yet another streaming service.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports MLB is in advanced talks with Roku to take over the Sunday morning baseball package that previously streamed on Peacock, NBC’s subscription streaming platform.

As of Friday a final deal had not yet been announced. But if it does, exclusive MLB games would stream on the Roku Channel Sunday mornings beginning at 11:30 a.m. or noon, giving them a nearly two-hour head start on other Sunday games, which typically start after 1:30 p.m.

One bit of good news is the Roku Channel is free. And no, you won’t have to go out any buy a Roku device — the Roku Channel can be downloaded on Samsung Smart TVs and some Amazon Fire TV devices, as well as on Apple and Android devices.