MLB EXTRA INNINGS is an add-on package available only through cable and satellite TV providers, whereas MLB.TV is a standalone streaming service. Check out our MLB EXTRA INNINGS vs. MLB.TV comparison guide for more details.

*Extra Innings *is a Cable TV subscription package offered by participating pay TV providers that allows you to watch out-of-market MLB games on television. Each Extra Innings package varies by pay TV provider.

MLB EXTRA INNINGS can be found on Ch. 721 – 749 and include the following: MLB Network Strike Zone (Ch. 719) provides a high-speed look at every MLB game across the league during the regular season.

MLB EXTRA INNINGS plans and pricing

MLB first used the extra-innings tiebreaker rule during the 60-game pandemic season in 2020 as a way to shorten games and reduce injury risk after the unusual spring training shutdown and midsummer build-up period for pitchers. The rule remained on a temporary basis in 2021 and 2022, and now it has been made permanent.

'Ghost runners' in extra innings The existing rule: While it's not new in 2023, MLB did say this past offseason it was permanently implementing a provision in use since 2020 that every half inning after the ninth begins with a runner on second base.

Major League Baseball is making it permanent: In all regular-season extra-inning games, a runner will be placed on second base to begin the 10th inning, and in every subsequent extra inning after that, until a winner is determined, according to a source familiar with the situation.

MLB EXTRA INNINGS® can be found on Ch. 720 – 749.

MLB EXTRA INNINGS® on DIRECTV DIRECTV customers with a subscription to MLB EXTRA INNINGS® unlock access to MLB.TV and MLB At Bat as part of the package. That means you can stream out-of-market games live or on demand on almost any device - at home or on the go.

MLB.TV is included with MLB Extra Innings when purchased through a participating pay-TV provider. Click below to link your account.

The league's Joint Competition Committee unanimously voted to make its extra-inning rule permanent for all regular season games in 2023 and beyond, ESPN's Jesse Rogers reported on Monday. In 2020, MLB changed its rules so that each extra inning would begin with a runner on second base.

And as has been the case since 2020, the rule – designed to expedite endings and prevent marathons that wreck rosters – will only apply during the regular season. Postseason extra innings will begin with the bases empty. Since the rule was instituted in 2020, no regular-season game has gone longer than 16 innings.