ESPN’s broadcast of Phillies-Marlins game had a couple of snafus

For the second straight season, ESPN is broadcasting every game of MLB’s wild-card series. That meant Tuesday night the Phillies game was airing on ESPN, while Game 1 between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers was on ESPN2.

That overlapping of games caused some confusion, when ESPN briefly cut to highlights from the other three wild-card games just as the Phillies were closing out their win over the Marlins in the top of the ninth inning.

A video montage looped twice due to a control room mistake, according to an ESPN spokesperson. It was shown once properly, then accidentally aired a second time without audio. The broadcasters were unaware of the glitch, which is why play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech didn’t mention the highlights.

Ravech did hear from fans on social media prior to the game even starting, after saying Phillies shortstop Trea Turner was experiencing the playoffs for the first time.

Not only had Turner appeared in 43 playoff games prior to joining the Phillies, he won the World Series with the Washington Nationals in 2019.

Otherwise, the broadcast looked and sounded great, with ESPN capturing the intensity of the Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park, the goal of Sunday Night Baseball producer Andy Jacobson.

“It’s postseason baseball. Philly is going to be insane. These home ballparks are going to be rocking. Everything’s magnified,” Jacobson told The Inquirer. “Our goal is to make sure the viewer at home feels that electricity.”

ESPN’s crew also gave 94.1 WIP producer Jack Fritz a shout-out for coming up with the idea to encourage Phillies fans to cheer — and not boo — a struggling Turner in August. In the 48 games since fans showed him some love, Turner’s batting average improved from .235 to .337, his strikeout rate plunged nearly 30%, and he hit 16 home runs.

“Everyone acknowledges that Jack Fritz, apparently it was his idea, was brilliant in doing so,” Ravech said. Cone said if the Phillies end up winning the World Series, Fritz deserves a ring.

Game 2 will air on ESPN Wednesday at 8:08 p.m., with Ravech calling the game alongside analysts Eduardo Pérez and David Cone.

» READ MORE: Live updates: Phillies-Marlins Game 2

As expected, the energy throughout Citizens Bank Park during Tuesday’s Game 1 win against the Miami Marlins was electric.

ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan thinks you have to look outside the world of baseball to find crowds as lively and loud as Phillies fans can be during the postseason.

“It’s an SEC stadium in baseball,” Passan told SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt following the game. “And you don’t see these sorts of crowds that are up all game long, that are cheering at the right time, that get in guys’ heads — or really, in their ears.”

“Remember, when you have PitchCom, which is the system that allows you to communicate with your catcher without using signals, the crowd matters,” Passan added. “If the crowd is loud enough, and you can’t hear with PitchCom, you’re going to have a lot of problems executing those pitches.”

While Tom McCarthy, John Kruk, and company weren’t able to call the game on NBC Sports Philadelphia, fans looking for a local Philly flair can still hear Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen call all the Phillies playoff action on 94.1 WIP.

Here’s how the final out in the ninth inning sounded on the radio last night, with Franzke offering an emphatic, “he got him” on Alec Bohm’s toss to Bryce Harper.

Oct. 5, 2004. That’s the last time the Minnesota Twins had won a playoff game.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Twins fans were fired up after Minnesota’s 3-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in their American League wild-card series game on Monday.

Fox 9, the local affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul, sent longtime anchor Jim Rich to Target Field to get the reaction of fans after the win. And boy, did they react.

“They won! They won! They freaking won! The curse is over!” one excited fan told Rich.