Diane Pucin’s live commentary on how Fox is handling the Angels-Yankees Game 4 telecast

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Awful game, good telecast

From having the replays that showed the umpires terribly wrong three times to Joe Buck’s prescient call on Alex Rodriguez’s home run early in the game, this was Fox’s best use of technology and human talkers yet.

Counting pitches (again)

As Joe Buck just said, CC Sabathia needed only 12 pitches to finish off the seventh inning. Is Buck channeling those of you who complained of not getting such info?

Who’s having worse night, Angels pitchers or umpire Tim McClelland?

For the second time tonight Tim McClelland seemed lost at third base and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver didn’t let it go, when it appeared obvious that Angel catcher Mike Napoli tagged out two Yankees at third, Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada. Neither of them had a foot on third base. McClelland saw a phantom foot apparently. As McCarver said twice, ‘Both are off the bag, that’s an easy call.’ Or not. Angels only got one out when it should have been two.

Can’t call it better than this Here’s what Joe Buck said during Alex Rodriguez’s at-bat that ended in the home run to put New York up 5-0: ‘You can get in trouble as an announcer, as a fan, maybe even as a teammate, reading body language but if you read the body language of Alex Rodriguez, that is an extremely confident hitter who seems to be picking up the ball REALLY well as he hits one into left, back at the wall...Rodriguez goes deep and it’s 5-0 New York.’ On the word ‘Really,’ Rodriguez clubbed the ball. It was as if he and Buck had rehearsed the entire thing.

Sabathia pitch count

Some readers have complained that Fox isn’t giving information such as the pitch count often enough. Joe Buck just said that CC Sabathia had only thrown 37 pitches so far. On the 38th, Sabathia was done with four scoreless innings.

And then the makeup call

Split screen replay seems to show that Nick Swisher did not leave third base too early. Swisher seemed to score on a a fly out. Angels protested Swisher left the bag early. Umpire Tim McClelland agrees with Angels. Split screen doesn’t. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver agree with replay. That mistake cost the Yankees a run.

Such a bad call

Nick Swisher was so picked off at second in the top of the fourth. Replay showed it, Scott Kazmir’s throw to Erick Aybar perfect, Aybar’s tag is spot on. Joe Buck, Tim McCarver say so. Angels Stadium crowd says so. Why didn’t Erick Aybar open his mouth and complain just a little?

Bad timing

While Tim McCarver was interviewing Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher in the dugout, we heard that sharp bat crack. Yep, it was Angels pitcher Scott Kazmir, the subject of the chat, giving up a loudly-hit double to Jorge Posada. Yankees on second and third and it wasn’t until the ball had reached the wall that McCarver was able to escape that interview with Butcher. The danger of trying to talk too much during a live sporting event -- you just can’t predict the pesky action.

An hour in

This game is about an hour old. It is a scoreless tie. It is still the bottom of the third. There will be plenty of time for all the commercials.

The 57

You don’t ever want to be on it now. For those of you not from Orange County, that was the 57 North doing its daily five-hour rush hour crawl that was just shown. It will take those drivers, oh, about an hour to get to that next exit, Ball Road.

Thanks, Fox!

We just got to see the exchange. Layne was telling Scioscia that Angels catcher Mike Napoli wasn’t getting low enough to give Layne a good look at Scott Kazmir’s pitches. As Tim McCarver said, Napoli was down on his knee for the first time tonight.

Don’t tease us Fox!

Joe Buck just said umpire Jerry Layne is wearing a microphone and that Layne and Angels manager Mike Scioscia had and ‘interesting exchange’ between the second and third innings. Buck said we’ll get to listen if there’s time. That’s like telling someone you have a juicy piece of gossip but, oops, you promised not to tell. Once you let out a bit of info, you’ve got to let it all out. So we want to see that ‘interesting exchange.’

Ninja Assassin Keys to the Game

Really. None of the keys had anything to do with karate kicks or killing. They were ‘CC’ for the Yankees. Or, as Tim McCarver said, ‘Confidence, confidence.’ And the Yankee starting pitcher is CC Sabathia. Get it? For the Angels the Ninja Assassin Key (singular for the Angels) was ‘The Angels finally have momentum.

A little cranky

The Angels didn’t take the field defensively as quickly as Joe Buck would have hoped. He wondered where they were and grumbled that there wouldn’t be a big point to showing the defensive starting lineup graphic. And then, after the game had started and the Yankee were batting Buck said, ‘If you’ve forgotten since I gave you the starting lineup,’ before telling us who was due up for the Yanks. So, yes, the game has started.

And someone get Torii Hunter an Excedrin

The Angels’ Hunter said he has a headache from the excitement of this series.

Karros on Scioscia

On the Fox pregame show, analyst Eric Karros said, ‘Mike Scioscia did the best managing job of his entire career,’ this year. And both Karros and fellow analyst Mark Grace are saying that there is suddenly immense pressure on the Yankees. Grace, citing New York’s 1-5 postseason record at Angel Stadium, called the place a ‘House of Horrors for the Yankees.’

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