Baseball fans looking to watch their teams this season have to add yet another streaming service to their rotation of providers: YouTube. On Thursday the video platform and MLB announced that YouTube will stream 15 games during the 2022 season, starting with the Washington Nationals versus the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, May 5.

As it has done for the past four years, YouTube's broadcasts will be free to viewers and air in 182 countries. Like Apple TV Plus' Friday night games and Peacock's upcoming Sunday broadcasts, these games will be exclusive to YouTube and will not simultaneously air on regional sports networks in local television markets.

With Google's renewed partnership, nearly every major streaming player now has a piece of the baseball action for the 2022 season. In addition to the respective Apple TV Plus and Peacock deals for Friday and Sunday, Amazon will exclusively stream 21 Yankees games on Prime Video in the New York market, while Disney regularly streams select games to ESPN Plus subscribers.

Read more: MLB Streaming 2022: How to Watch Your Baseball Team Live This Season

Similar to Apple's broadcasts, MLB Network is producing YouTube's games with the video platform. A YouTube representative confirmed to CNET that its broadcast quality has been upped this season to 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second -- prior games streamed at 720p and 30fps.

The 15 games are officially called "MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube" and can be found by searching for MLB in the YouTube app or visiting the league's YouTube channel.

As it has in the past, YouTube's broadcasts will include the ability to chat with "MLB superfan YouTube creators" while those watching on the company's paid YouTube TV streaming service will be able to "re-watch key plays tied to the exact moment they are watching, and check out real-time stats from the game."

YouTube has yet to release its full schedule of 2022 games, but here are the first seven it has confirmed:

Source: CNET

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