As we head into the final weeks of Sunday Night Baseball‘s 2026 regular season MLB broadcasts on NBC and Peacock, there’s a bit of a schedule change for the August 23rd edition. We’ll still get a Sunday Night Baseball show with the usual NBC Sports crew, and MLB Sunday Leadoff will still bring a second game, but this week things will look a little more like Sunday Afternoon Baseball. 

How to Watch

Watch MLB on NBC and streaming on Peacock.

Why? Well, for that and more, let’s take a closer look at this week’s matchup, as the San Francisco Giants head to Fenway Park to take on the Boston Red Sox on NBC and Peacock.

RELATED: MLB Sunday Night Baseball 2026 Full Schedule

How to watch San Francisco Giants vs. Boston Red Sox (August 23)

The Giants and the Red Sox will lead a special afternoon edition of Sunday Night Baseball this Sunday, August 23, with the broadcast set to begin at 3 p.m. ET, live from Fenway Park in Boston. Jason Benetti will be on the call for NBC Sports, with analysis from MLB veterans Hunter Pence and Lou Merloni. Ahmed Fareed, as always, will host the pregame show alongside analyst Anthony Rizzo, who’s back once again to call “Inside the Pitch” commentary from the perspective of the batters. You can catch the game live on NBC or stream it on Peacock.

And, because the game is earlier, it’ll overlap with this week’s MLB Sunday Leadoff game, when the Arizona Diamondbacks host the Cincinnati Reds live on Peacock beginning at 4 p.m. ET.  Dave Flemming will call that game for NBC Sports with MLB veterans Luis Gonzalez and Jeff Brantley providing commentary, and on-the-field reporting from Caroline Pineda. 

RELATED: How to Watch Major League Baseball on Peacock in 2026

Why is Sunday Night Baseball early on August 23?

This week’s edition of Sunday Night Baseball was bumped to earlier in the day to accommodate a WNBA matchup live on NBC and streaming on Peacock in primetime, as the Indiana Fever take on the Chicago Sky with playoff seeding on the line. So, spend the afternoon with baseball, and then catch some basketball in the evening. Everybody wins!

What to expect from Giants vs. Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball

The big story for the Giants as they go on the road this weekend to face the Red Sox is third-basement Rafael Devers, who’ll be back in Fenway for his first game against his old team after joining the Giants last year. It will no doubt be an emotional moment, since Devers spent the first decade-plus of his career in Boston. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the three-time All-Star fares in this one. 

Otherwise, the Giants are basically out of the playoff picture, sitting near the bottom of the very tough NL West and hoping to finish out their season with some quality wins, something to build on for next season, and maybe a playoff spoiler or two. That’s where the Sox come in. They’re also in a tough division, sitting behind the Rays and the Yankees in the AL East, where even the worst teams have topped 60 wins at this point. 

Still, the Sox are right in the fight for the American League Wild Card. If they keep winning, and players like Wilson Contreras keep slugging, they control their own destiny. They’re the clear favorites here, but the Giants could show us something on the road Sunday afternoon.Â