It's a shame the Dodgers and Padres won't end the regular season against one another because the NL West title could still be in play 31 games from now.

The San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves neck and neck once more at the top of the National League West after a thrilling showdown at Petco Park.

According to people familiar with negotiations, ESPN is nearing a deal to distribute out-of-market games while NBC/Peacock, Netflix, Apple TV are in talks for regular-season packages, the Wild Card round and Home Run Derby.

When ESPN opted out of its contract with Major League Baseball in February, the network was hoping to get a reworked package at a lower cost while Commissioner Rob Manfred thought the sport could optimize its rights in the short term for Home Run Derby and wild card round.

In addition, ESPN will replace MLB.tv and have the rights to sell all of MLB’s out-of-market games. I’ve already received a ton of questions about this, but I don’t have any answers yet. The deal is not even officially done.