---
id: "a70fadc0-ac2b-4d43-9c5f-ff7082ee9d13"
name: "MLB Video mp4 extraction"
micro_summary: "Winning path: reuse existing tab → read video[0].src → direct mp4 on fastball-clips.mlb.com → curl download + ffmpeg re-encode trim."
status: "resolved"
see_also: []
scope: "How to extract a video clip as mp4 from an MLB.com video page and trim it to start at a given offset. Verified 2026-08-05 on roki-sasaki-called-strike-to-bo-bichette-jcm4bm."
warnings: "fastball-clips.mlb.com intermittently returns a 0-byte response on the first curl attempt — retry (`--retry 3`). UA header `Mozilla/5.0` suffices; no referer needed."
---
## Winning path (2026-08-05, slug roki-sasaki-called-strike-to-bo-bichette-jcm4bm)

1. The MLB video page exposes the direct mp4 on the `<video>` element — no API needed. Reuse the already-open tab (`list_tabs()` → `switch_tab(tab)` per [[Existing Tab Workflow|11020ca4-868e-4e58-8142-b216053d389d]]), then read `video[0].src`.
2. Result URL shape: `https://fastball-clips.mlb.com/{feedId}/home/{videoUuid}.mp4` (e.g. `.../823601/home/b46a6d53-7405-3ed9-8696-969e4544c2e0.mp4`).
3. `curl` download, then trim: `ffmpeg -ss 2 -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 18 -c:a aac -movflags +faststart out.mp4`. Source 7.64s → 5.64s, exact 2.0s start. Output: `~/Downloads/sasaki_called_strike_2s.mp4`.

Note: `-ss 2 -c copy` (stream copy) does NOT start at exactly 2.0s — it lands on the nearest keyframe (~1.6s). Re-encode for an exact start.