NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Tom McCarthy won’t be calling the rest of the Phillies-Marlins series

The Phillies will be missing a familiar voice when they finish up their series against the Miami Marlins this weekend at Citizens Bank Park

Tom McCarthy, in his 14th season as the team’s television voice on NBC Sports Philadelphia (and five years before that on the radio), was in the booth Friday night to call the Phillies’ 3-2 loss to the Marlins.

But McCarthy won’t be calling Saturday’s or Sunday’s game. That’s because he’ll be on CBS broadcasting the NFL Week 1 matchup between the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon, which happens to be the Denver coaching debut of Sean Payton.

“It’s baseball season, and these are important games, so I try to limit the amount of misses that I have,” McCarthy told The Inquirer. “CBS is great about letting me go out the day before.”

Replacing McCarthy in the booth on NBC Sports Philadelphia will be longtime Phillies radio announcer Scott Franzke, who also filled in for McCarthy last year when the NFL came calling. Calling this weekend’s game alongside Franzke will be analyst Rubén Amaro Jr., the former Phillies general manager in his second season calling games on the network. John Kruk is off this weekend and is scheduled to return Monday.

Over on 94.1 WIP, pre- and postgame host Gregg Murphy also will handle play-by-play alongside Kevin Stocker, a former Phillies shortstop who took over as the team’s main radio analyst this season as Larry Andersen has reduced his workload in recent years.

“The great thing is we have a lot of talented guys that are broadcasting the Phillies, and we’re all very good friends,” McCarthy said. “Even Kevin Stocker, who is basically full-time with us, he kind of fits like a glove with all the antics we do together. We’re really fortunate.”

CBS has also tabbed McCarthy to call the Week 2 game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Tennessee Titans on Sept. 17, an assignment that will cause him to miss two more games during the Phillies’ series against the St. Louis Cardinals that weekend at Busch Stadium. He’ll also miss the Phillies’ Sept. 23 game against the New York Mets because he’ll be calling a college football game for CBS that Saturday.

“I think the grind makes me sharper because it keeps my mind moving more and more,” McCarthy said. “I get bored very easy. My kids are all older, my wife teaches, so, for me, doing games and preparing for games really does keep me rolling.”

This is McCarthy’s 10th season calling NFL games, and this year he’s paired with Hall of Famer James Lofton and former NFL kicker Jay Feely. He has experience working with both — he’s called a handful of NFL games on radio with Lofton and was partnered with Feely for two seasons at CBS. Tiffany Blackmon will handle the broadcast’s sideline reporting.

McCarthy still holds the distinction of being the only play-by-play announcer other than Jim Nantz to call a game with Tony Romo, which he did in 2021 when Nantz tested positive for COVID-19. Nantz and Romo will be in the booth Sunday to call the Eagles’ season opener against the New England Patriots.

“He’s a normal dude who just loves the game,” McCarthy said of Romo after they called a game together. “His knowledge of the game is phenomenal. His recall is kind of like [John] Kruk’s recall, where he just remembers things that I wouldn’t ever be able to remember.”

The Eagles are only scheduled to play on CBS twice this season, and Nantz and Romo are slated to call both games. While McCarthy has never worked an Eagles game on TV for CBS, he was able to call the Birds’ playoff loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021 on radio for Westwood One alongside NBC Sports Philadelphia analyst and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski.

“I’m really lucky to work for the organizations that I work for, that they give me an opportunity to do this,” McCarthy said.

» READ MORE: Tony Romo loves Jalen Hurts, but he’s really been impressed by Eagles owner Jeff Lurie

Phillies fans aren’t out of the streaming woods yet.

The team is scheduled to play the next two Friday’s on Apple TV+’s Friday Night Baseball package — Sept. 15 against the Cardinals and Sept. 22 against the New York Mets.

Apple hasn’t yet announced the broadcast team for either game. The tech giant streams two games each Friday and has two announcing duos — Wayne Randazzo with Dontrelle Willis, and Alex Faust with Ryan Spilborghs. Heidi Watney — the inspiration for Matt Damon’s character’s name in The Martian — and Tricia Whitaker are Apple TV+’s sideline reporters.

If you don’t feel like shelling out the $6.99 a month for Apple TV+ (there is seven-day free trial), you can listen to the games on 94.1 WIP. You also can switch to WIP’s audio while streaming the game on Apple TV+, a cool new addition for broadcasts this season.

There’s also a workaround. Thanks to Apple’s deal with DirecTV, the Phillies games will air at bars and restaurants that already use the satellite service. You just have to shell out for the beer.

» READ MORE: ‘It was eating me up’: How the Phillies’ 2022 playoff run has impacted their playoff push in 2023