BASEBALL’S LCS SCORES SOLID RATINGS

After staying up until the wee hours Friday night to watch Game 1 of the NLCS playoffs between the Dodgers and Cardinals, the 5.5 million viewers who watched that game dwindled to 3.4 million for the afternoon telecast of the second game on Saturday. Nevertheless, both games showed ratings gains of around 50 percent over the same games two years ago, the last time that the NLCS contests were carried by TBS. On Saturday night Game 1 of the ALCS playoffs between the Tigers and the Red Sox, carried by Fox, was watched by 6.8 million viewers, up 20 percent over the comparable game on Fox two years ago. It was also the highest-rated Game 1 of a MLB championship series since 2009. And on Sunday night Game 2 topped that number, with 8.26 million, despite airing opposite NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Cowboys vs Redskins), which drew 19.65 million viewers.