There’s a reason they’re called the Fightin’ Phillies.
It took extra baseball to figure out Game 2 of the NL Wild Card series, but the Phillies took it in dramatic fashion with a 4-3, 10-inning win.
Tuesday’s broadcast crew reprised their roles, with the Phillies’ John Kruk and Braves’ C.J. Nitkowski as the analysts, Matt Vasgersian back on play-by-play, Joey Votto as the “inside the pitch” analyst, and field reporter Ashley ShahAhmadi.
If the nerves made it hard to watch or you turned it off after the Braves took the lead in the seventh, here’s what you missed on the Phillies broadcast:
Everybody makes mistakes
Things were shaky to start in the booth.
When Alec Bohm came up to bat cleanup for the Phillies in the top of the first, Vasgersian said it was Bryson Stott who was batting fourth.
The original lineup had Stott listed in the fourth spot, but before noon, the lineup was fixed and the pair was flipped. The lineup was shared on social media, but it appears the booth never received the update.
Later, in the top of the third Vasgersian misspoke again when the Phillies had 5-foot-11, 229-pound slugger Kyle Schwarber at the plate for his second at-bat of the game. Vasgersian, however, said Ha-Seong Kim, a 5-10, 200-pound shortstop for the Braves, was up.
Take a look at Kim and Schwarber side-by-side to get the full effect of that blunder.
Kim was up to start the bottom of the third for the Braves, which makes Vasgersian’s mix-up more understandable, however.
Another one
While he might have had some mix-ups to start the game, Vasgersian had no problem reminding viewers why he secured the national job, especially when it comes to home run calls.
First came Schwarber’s to make it a 3-2 game, giving us the first of Vasgersian’s back-to-back home run calls.
“Schwarber gets ahold of one,” Vasgersian said. “Acuña doesn’t even give it a look. To the top of the Chop, and Philly has a pulse.”
Then, Harper did the same to tie the game, and Vasgersian’s call matched the previous.
When Bohm followed, Vasgersian got a little too excited for what was a shallow fly ball to the outfield, but he was redeemed in the top of the 10th when Bohm actually hit one out to give the Phillies the go-ahead run.
“Carrying and it’s gone,” Vasgersian said. “Alec Bohm oppo shot.”
Kruk-isms
The tension and nerves of an elimination game have no impact when you’re John Kruk.
The Phillies analyst had several typical Kruk lines on Wednesday, including when he speculated whether Edmundo Sosa actually knows his name, despite calling him “sir,” or when he said Brandon Marsh was walking “like he just got off a horse,” after he tweaked his hamstring and used a massage gun between innings.
But perhaps the most Kruk line was when the 65-year-old almost dropped some foul language when reminiscing on his own playing days visiting Atlanta.
“I used to love that when we played playoffs here, it was so f…dang loud,” Kruk said. “I almost said a bad word.”
Thinking inside the box
Votto served as the Inside the Pitch analyst for both games so far but seemed to be used more frequently in Game 2.
The pitching duel between the Cristopher Sánchez and Tyler Mahle lent itself to more insight from Votto about how batters see the ball and the decision-making that goes on at the plate.
He even gave insight into how shadows late in the game can affect the way batters see the ball, and, as a result, how aggressive or slow they are to respond at the plate.
The broadcast also showed multiple replays from the umpire camera, including Schwarber’s home run, giving viewers a different perspective of the at-bats with how they look from inside the batter’s box.
The series will be decided in Game 3 on Thursday, with the same crew on the broadcast.
