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Diane Pucin’s live commentary on how Fox is handling the telecast of Angels-Yankees Game 2

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FS West Angels postgame show on now

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Jose Mota starts by saying not to be surprised if Vlad Guerrero is moved down in the batting order. Just after Bill Macdonald called the finish of the game ‘disastrous’ but then also it a ‘five-hour, 10-minute classic, if you will.’ Will you?

It’s the hoods

If you’re wearing the hood you’re going to have a brain lock. Maicer Izturis, what were you thinking? As Tim McCarver said, Izturis had only one play, and that was to first. Apparently Izturis disagreed. He figured out a second play. To throw it to, um, third?

When it starts snowing

That’s when they’ll stop this game. Not that we’re down here with conspiracy theories but you don’t suppose Fox execs are begging that this game be finished tonight so there’s no decisions needing to be made about whether the baseball game finish will interrupt an NFL game?

You can hear the rain

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And you can also hear Chone Figgins wonder how in the heck that ball was called a strike. Pitch Trax shows Figgins is right. The ball was high. Angels not getting any calls in this game. You also heard Tim McCarver suggest that Angels fans would be very happy if Figgins got his first hit of the post season. McCarver? He’s right. On both accounts.

If Erick Aybar had been Serena Williams...

He would have just told umpire Jerry Layne to shove the ball down his throat. Insert your own other words. As Tim McCarver said, that call always goes to the infielder and that call is never made. Kind of like the double fault on second-to-last point in critical US Open match.

Line of the night

In the top of the ninth, on the replay of Yankee pitcher Mariano Rivera fending off third baseman Alex Rodriguez to catch Jeff Mathis’s pop up, Joe Buck said, ‘Remeber kids when you catch a pop up, always use four hands.’ Tim McCarver cracked up. The replay was also excellent. It showed how Rodriguez’s glove brushed Rivera’s glove.

Again wishing for the Pitch Trax

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Bobby Abreu just took strike three from Mariano Rivera. Abreu questioned the call. The ball looked as if it might have been low. Would have liked to have seen what the Trax thought.

That was jarring

The sudden departure from the sound of the game after Jorge Posada grounded out to start the bottom of the eighth for the Yankees to the sound of Fox’s sponsor moment. But the game came back in time for Derek Jeter’s at-bat to start. For a moment thought our cable was going crazy.

Does Jack at Jack in the Box have a case?

Doesn’t it seem as if Taco Bell’s much-advertised ‘Black Jack’ taco is really kind of a rip off of everything Jack, the best commercial star ever in his Jack in the Box spots? Does Jack have a legal quibble?

Doppler Radar has lied to us

Joe Buck has been quoting Doppler Radar a lot, well figuratively anyways. Doppler Radar told Joe that this Yankees-Angels game should be stopped by now. That rain has been considered an ‘imminent’ threat by Buck several times tonight. Not that this game will end tonight at the pace it’s being played (at least not tonight on the East Coast). But rain may not be the culprit.

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What a year

That’s what Joe Buck said while we saw Phil Coke’s stats of a 4-3 record and a 4.50 earned run average. The year wasn’t that good was it? What an (okay) year maybe.

Hood-wearing players and errors

Erick Aybar wore the Teletubby hood last night and embarrassed himself in the first inning of Friday’s game. No hood tonight, Aybar looks like an all-star. Robinson Cano has the hood on now and he may still have not located the ball Aybar just dribbled in the infield. Bare-headed Aybar is on first. Hooded-up Cano was last seen staring at the ground. Just sayin’

Safe prediction

Joe Buck said the pop up hit by Alex Rodriguez would ‘stay in the park.’ Um, yep, it will. It didn’t carry much past the infield.

Jeter was so safe

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There’s another example of why replay should eventually be instituted for baseball. Derek Jeter did beat Erick Aybar’s throw to first in the bottom of the fifth. It should have been Yankees on first and third with one out instead of Yankee at third with two outs. That’s a difference-maker. And Jeter didn’t even argue.

Pitch trax please

Would have liked to have seen where the A.J. Burnett pitch that Torii Hunter just took for a ball that made the count 3-2. It kinda looked like a strike.

More pitch tracking or less?

TBS uses its pitch tracking graphic much more than Fox uses its Fox Trax. Just realized I missed it a little when Fox just used it to illustrated how high the pitch was that Bobby Abreu just swung at, the one that would have been ball four and loaded the bases with Angels. But Abreu is still at bat, a five-minute at-bat according to Joe Buck.

More McCarver predictions

Tim McCarver suggests it would be a good time for Erick Aybar to steal second. Sure enough, Aybar just stole second.

Longing for some health food commercials

I’m hungry for: Taco Bell, Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast and now a Carl’s Jr. double, gigantic, slobbery double something or other.

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If you’re multitasking

The MLB.com live game day graphics and information are great. Worth checking out.

Oops

While trying to show a replay of Yankee catcher Jose Molina taking a foul ball right off the mask, Joe Buck said, ‘Let’s listen.’ We heard not much. Then Buck said, a little louder, ‘Let’s listen.’ Again, not much and was really trying to listen. So Buck said, ‘We’ll try it after this 0-2 pitch.’ Still haven’t heard what we’re supposed to hear.’ Maybe after the commercial.

Hunter slow, Buck not

Good pick up by Joe Buck on Torii Hunter’s clunky start out of the box just now. Hunter’s Let’s find that rock!

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Tim McCarver said, after Derek Jeter just hit his home run, that he was looking at a pile of clips (we assume from newspaper stories) of people who had determined that Jeter was finished last year including one that claimed Jeter was the worst-fielding shortstop in baseball. ‘Most of them are silent now hiding under a rock in a cave somewhere,’ McCarver said. And if Jeter strikes out a couple of times, it being New York, word will reach the rock in the cave and one or another critic will come back out.

Is it raining?

It looks like it might be raining at Yankee Stadium. But no one has said anything so maybe not.

Erick Aybar as Teletubby?

Joe Buck said that Erick Aybar, when he was all bundled up Friday night with his ear-covering hood on, looked like a Teletubby. Is that a compliment or not? No hood for Aybar tonight. He’s apparently lent it to Maicer Izturis.

Now it’s Tim’s time to predict

Tim McCarver noted that Angels starter Joe Saunders has a power sinker that is, McCarver said, ‘Tough to pull. Early ground balls could be a sign of effectiveness of Saunders and the Angels.’

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Then Yankee lead off hitter Derek Jeter grounded out to Figgins at third. But Johnny Damon almost clubbed the ball out of the park (quickly-arriving winter may have kept it in the stadium). So it’s too soon to tell of McCarver is right.

No predicting, Joe

As Torii Hunter is batting, play-by-play man Joe Buck says, ‘Fast ball coming.’ The pitch came. There was a moment of silence. Then Buck said, ‘Curve ball coming. It was a ball.’ Analyst Tim McCarver then said maybe it was a splitter. Or a cut fastball. Nobody knows but Yankee pitcher A.J. Burnett. And maybe Hunter.

The ratings stuff

According the Nielsen ratings Friday’s Game 1 of this series did 27% better than last year’s ALCS Boston-Tampa Bay Game 1 which was on TBS. A more fair comparison (TBS is cable, Fox is over the air) is that the Angels-Yankees did two percent better than Fox’s Game 1 NLCS game a year ago between the Dodgers and the Phillies.

It is the highest-rated LCS game since the new LCS format was adopted in 2007. And according the Fox, any increase is notable because the game was Friday, a low-viewership night.

They got Joe a thermometer

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Joe Buck just told us the numbers. It’s 48 degrees in New York. It feels like it’s 43 (that wind chill thing). That’s better than last night when we were only told it was in the mid-40s.

Back in Fox’s LA-based studio -- Chris Rose said that, he’s bragging, that’s okay, it’s not 48 degrees here -- Eric Karros and Mark Grace are dissecting all the Angel mistakes from Game 1. This 30-minute pregame might not be long enough.

You can follow Mike Penner’s live game updates here.

Fans walk past Yankee Stadium before Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Credit: Julie Jacobson / Associated Press

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